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ETHNIC FACTORS 



IN THE 



POPULATION OF BOSTON 




FREDERICK A. BUSHRR, Ph.D. 



MAY, 1903 



published for the 
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OFFICERS FOR THE YEAR 1903 

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Edwin R. A. Seugman, 

Columbia Uuiversity 

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Vanderbilt University 

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Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 

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William Z. Ripley, 

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ETHNIC FACTORS 



IN THE 



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I 



FREDERICK A. BUSHEE 



MAY, 1903 



published for the 
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PREFACE 

The study of racial phenomena not only has a lively 
interest for the general reader, but it has also a profound 
significance for the scientific student. Few of such in- 
vestigations have, however, been pursued in the United 
States. Our experts in these fields have been tolled 
away into the study of the extinct or moribund races 
of the far South and West — studies interesting as bear- 
ing on the origin of institutions, but devoid of any prac- 
tical value for the future of our American people. It is 
a source of gratification that interest is spreading in 
America in the study of populations, analyzed as they 
have been for years in Europe. Of recent years have 
been published the " Hull House papers," Hoffman's 
" American Negro," various articles on the colored 
population in the bulletins of the Department of Labor, 
various papers by Dr. Du Bois, the report of the New 
York Tenement House Commission of 1894, the ex- 
cellent volumes by the residents of the South End 
House in Boston, " The city wilderness," and more re- 
cently "Americans in process." This monograph, in 
conjunction with the two last named works, affords per- 
haps the most complete picture of social and ethnic con- 
ditions in a great American city that is as yet available. 

The similarity between this monograph and " Ameri- 
cans in process," perhaps the best of its kind, both of 
which have to do with the population of Boston, is evi- 
dent. The two investigations are, liowever, rather par- 
allel than overlapping. Certain differences between 
them are useful as illustrating the distinct methods of 
research which may be employed in similar cases else- 



iv Preface 

where. " Americans in process" is a careful study of 
the social conditions in a small homogeneous district ; 
nationalities are considered only in so far as the}' are 
necessary to explain those conditions. This monograph, 
on the other hand, is intended to be a study of the com- 
parative values of various ethnic groups over a some- 
what larger area. In making the entire city the basis 
of study it can be made to depend almost wholly upon 
official statistics. The district used by the South End 
House was too small to obtain accurate statistical infor- 
mation concerning it ; its authors had to rely for the 
most part upon personal investigation. The subjects 
treated also differ somewhat. In " Americans in pro- 
cess " there is nothing corresponding exactly to the 
chapters in this monograph on " Causes of immigra- 
tion," " Vitality," " Poverty," and " Intermarriage " ; 
on the other hand, this study does not attempt to dis- 
cuss the religious situation. 

An illustration may serve to show the importance of 
noting the race factors in social studies. Vital statistics 
usually are collected and tabulated by administrative di- 
visions — by towns, cities, counties, and states ; yet the 
student taking the trouble to compare the scanty data 
available on birth rates or mortality by races discovers 
that it is often the relative proportion of a given nation- 
ality and not the character, natural or social, of the 
district which explains the phenomena. The Jews, for 
example, as Dr. Billings discovered in the special inves- 
tigation of mortality in 1890, have a vitality about twice 
as high as the average American city population,' This 
is especially notable in the infant mortality. The Ital- 
ians and Irish, on the other hand, have an almost sui- 

' See page 41, infra. Extended illustrations are given in "The 
races of Europe," p. 383. 



Preface v 

cidal death rate among children. What significance, 
then, has a general death rate, even specified by ages, 
for cities by wards which does not take account of the 
relative proportions of these ethnic elements in the total 
population ? It may become entirely misleading. 

Two chapters of this investigation have a peculiarly 
deep meaning for the future of the American people ; 
viz., those upon vitality and upon degeneration. The 
subject of the former has been emphasized by vigorous 
pronouncements of late by the President of the United 
States and by the President of Harvard University. 
Statisticians have long been cognizant of the tendencies, 
but each contribution which can throw light upon them 
is to be welcomed. The recent notable articles by Dr. 
Kuczynski ' upon the fecundity of the native and for- 
eign born population of Massachusetts are illustrations 
in point. And Dr. Bushee in this monograph in his dis- 
cussion of the causes of the differences in vitality be- 
tween ethnic stocks is surely dealing with one of the 
most important social questions of the day. The study 
of the phenomena of degeneration so carefully analyzed 
in this monograph is likewise of serious importance. 
Are differences in the proportions of criminals, defect- 
ives, and dependents as apparent between the several 
nationalities as are their contrasts in vitality ? If not, 
then we may tend to the belief that these phenomena are 
due to a common cause to which all are alike exposed. 
To strip off the overlying and confusing facts of social 
environment, laying bare the phenomena of race alone, 
is to render a distinct service to future students along 
these lines. 

^ Quarterly Journal of Econotnics, November, 1901, and February, 
1902. 



vi Preface 

The Kcotiomic Association can set itself no more im- 
portant task than to promote snch investigations, by 
making the results available through publication. Each 
college center should esteem it a privilege to have con- 
tributed to the common good by fostering research in its 
own locality. The present monograph contributes in 
no inconsiderable measure toward the advancement of 
this cause. 

William Z. Ripley. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER ^^-"^ PAGE 

I, Causes of Immigration i 

II. Characteristics of Immigrants 12 

III. Standard of Living 25 

IV. VlTAUTY 38 

V. Occupations 57 

VI. Poverty 84 

VII. Crime 98 

VIII. Naturalization 122 

IX. Intermarriage 135 

X. Conclusion 149 

List of Statistical Tables 163 

Index 165 



CHAPTER I 

CAUSES OF IMMIGRATION 

111 the Publications of the Ai)terica7i Statistical Asso- 
ciation for June, 1899, I reviewed the growth of the 
population of Boston, with special attention to the growth 
by foreign immigration, and compared the population of 
Boston with the populations of other large American 
cities. In the present article I shall deal with the char- 
acter of the chief ethnic factors in the population of 
Boston, and shall consider the value of these elements in 
the life of the city. In order to keep in mind the com- 
position of the population, the following table is pre- 
sented, showing the number of the leading nationalities 
by place of birth and by parent nativity according to 
the United States census of 1900. 

Chief Ethnic Factors of Boston by Pi,ace of Birth 
AND Parent Nativity (1900). 

Nationality Place of Birth Parent Nativity 

Massachusetts 285,242 \ „ 

Other states 78,521 / 207,02s 

Ireland 70,147 156,650 

Canada (English) 47>374 49,298 

Russia 14,995 22,254 

Italy 13,728 20,164 

England I3.I74 15,670 

Germany 10,523 21,618 

Sweden 5,54i 7, 610 

Scotland 4,473 7,823 

Poland 3,832 6,108 

Canada (French) 2,908 3,542 

Norway 1,145 1,5^5 

Austria 1,115 i,544 

France 1,003 1,348 

It must be borne in mind that the Irish have resided 
in Boston in considerable numbers longer than any other 
nationality. In 1846 about twenty-four thousand were 
in the city, and during the next ten years their numbers 



2 American Economic Association [308 

increased to nearly sixty thousand. The rapid immi- 
gration of British Americans began at the close of the 
Civil War, while most of the Italians and Jews have 
come since 1880. 

In the percentage of its total foreign population, Bos- 
ton ranks fifteenth among the 161 principal cities, and 
second among the six largest cities of the United States. 
A comparison of the constituent elements of its popula- 
tion shows that Boston contains an unusually large num- 
ber of British Americans, of Irish, and of Americans born 
outside of the city, while the number of Germans is 
small. 

In order to arrive at a fair verdict concerning the na- 
tionalities, some consideration should be given to the 
conditions which obtain in the countries from which 
our immigrants come and to the causes which have led 
to emigration. Such consideration is especially impor- 
tant in the case of the Irish, the Italians, and the Jews, 
for with each of these nationalities emigration has been 
at times exceptionally large. From most of the other 
countries, however, emigration to the United States has 
been about normal, indicating approximately the natural 
response which laborers in one country make to better 
economic advantages in another. 

The Irish who settled in Boston during the middle of 
the century were in a more hopeless condition before 
emigrating than any of the other nationalities. The 
use of the potato in Ireland as the staple article of food 
had reduced the standard of living to its extreme limit. 
In 1845, just on the eve of the famine, it was calculated 
that about one-half of the population, which at that 
time was over eight millions, was dependent upon the 
potato for subsistence.' The dwellings of the inhabi- 

^ Two centuries of Irish history, pt. 4, p. 394. 



309] Causes of hnniigration 3 

tants were of the crudest sort. In the census of 1841 
the dwelling houses were divided into four classes, the 
fourth class comprising all mud cabins with only one 
room. The percentage of the population in the various 
counties inhabiting houses of this class varied from 24 
per cent in Down to 66 per cent in Kerry. On the aver- 
age it was found that 43 per cent of the population in 
the rural districts and over 36 per cent in the urban 
districts lived in huts of this kind.' The laborers inhab- 
iting these huts were usually dependent upon the culti- 
vation of a little plot of ground, in many places stony 
and barren. 

The failure of the potato crop caused immediate want, 
followed by extreme wretchedness and starvation. With- 
in five years nearly one million persons died and more 
than a million emigrated.^ This emigration was not a 
normal movement of individuals who change their resi- 
dence through their own exertions ; it was a rescue by 
philanthropists of multitudes with no resources of their 
own to save themselves from starvation. Between 1848 
and 1864 it is said that the Irish in iVmerica sent 
^13,000,000 to friends in Ireland to help them to emi- 
grate.'^ In an article in the Z);/<^//« University Magasifie 
the result of the famine is described in the following 
words : " The potato was gone, the food of an entire 
nation was thus in a single night cut off, although the 
effects of the blight upon the crop only became known 
when the peasantry began to dig in their winter store. 
Here at home, plague, pestilence, and famine, demoraliza- 
tion, and an emigration still deserving the name of an 
exodus, were the immediate results to the peasantry."* 

' Two centuries of Irish history, p. 394. 
^ Two centuries of Irish history, p. 426. 

* Two centuries of Irish history, p. 426. 

* The food of the Irish, Dublin University Magazine, 43, 135. 



4 American Economic Association [310 

During the fifties there was considerable improve- 
ment in the material condition of Ireland, partly owing 
to the new land which had been reclaimed for cultiva- 
tion and to the introduction of the cattle raising indus- 
try, and partly to the mere decrease in population. 
Nevertheless the conditions continued to be sufficiently 
bad to favor extensive emigration. In 1882 assistance 
was again given to enable a large number to emigrate. 
In describing the conditions of life in some of the Irish 
counties at this time J. H. Tuke, in an article in the 
Nineteenth Ce7itiiry^ writes that in certain of the 
western counties people were living in a state of semi- 
starvation, many affording only one meal a day, and 
that families were found to be in arrears of three and a 
half years for rent and shop debts. Indeed, they could 
not have lived on their land if they had owned it. All 
were anxious to emigrate, but they had neither money 
nor clothes. One of the dwellings he visited Mr. Tuke 
describes as follows : " It was too low to stand upright 
in. A great boulder formed with the door one side. 
Sods formed the walls and sods and rafters the roof. 
One end was nine feet wide, the other seven and one- 
half feet wide, and nine feet long. A man and his wife, 
four sons and two daughters had been living in it for 

six months." ' 

Slavery to environment characterized the condition 

of the Irish in their own country. America was their 
land of emancipation, and they loved it from the be- 
ginning. Within recent years improved conditions in 
Ireland have changed the character of emigration ; al- 
though there is still a large emigration to the United 
States, it is no longer of a pioneer character. Now 

1 J. H. Tuke, Nineteenth Century, July, 1882. 



31 1] Causes of Immigration 5 

nearly all the immigrants come to join friends or rela- 
tives here. 

Conditions in many respects resembling those in 
Ireland cause many thousands of Italians to emigrate to 
this country each year, though these conditions are not 
of so desperate a character. Our Italian immigrants 
are peasants from the country districts. At the present 
time at least four-fifths come from southern Italy, 
especially from the provinces of Abruzzi, Campania, the 
Basilicati, Calabria, and Sicily.^ In northern Italy 
many of the farmers own their little plots of land and 
could make a moderate living according to the Italian 
standard if it were not for the heavy taxes. State ex- 
penditures are too large to make the raising of sufficient 
funds easy, and consequently many of the necessaries 
of life are taxed.- The difficulty of paying these taxes 
makes the Italian discontented, and news of the success 
of a former neighbor who has tried his fortune in 
America decides him to rent his little farm or perhaps 
even to sell it that he may obtain passage to that 
country which is to him an ideal land. Agents of 
steamship companies have also assisted emigration from 
Italy to a remarkable extent. Commissioner Schulters 
found a system in operation in 1891 which included 
nearly four thousand emigration agents and sub-agents. 
In 1900 there were over seven thousand emigration 
agents in the country.^ 

In southern Italy the conditions of life are much worse 
than in northern Italy. The land is in the hands of a 
comparatively few persons who live on the unearned in- 
crement and form in too many cases a non-resident 

'^ See Italian immigration, Political Scieftce Quarterly, vol. 4, p. 480. 
'^ Bolton King and Thomas Okey, Italy to-day, p. 140. 
* Bolton King and Thomas Okey, Italy to-day, p. 320. 



6 America7i Economic Association [312 

landlord class. According to Hon. Eugene Schuyler, 
writing in 1889, only 3.48 per cent of the inhabitants 
of the Neapolitan provinces were owners, as against 15 
per cent in Piedmont.^ These tenant farmers can afford 
to pay their hands scarcely enough to enable them to 
live — twenty cents a day and even less according to the 
report of Commissioner Schulters.^ But even these 
poverty stricken laborers do not escape the oppressive 
burden of supporting the state. Edmund Self, writing 
in 1882, declared that official statistics show that the 
average Italian laborer earns $140 a year and is taxed 

$1544' 

Italians from this class have no money with which to 
emigrate, and have no means whereby they can raise it. 
It is the kindness of a friend or relative in this country 
which secures their passage. Commissioner Schulters 
goes so far as to say in his report that three-fourths of 
the emigrants' tickets are paid for on this side of the 
water.^ To laborers of this class service in the army is 
not to be avoided. They look forward to it as a more 
comfortable life than that to which they have been 
accustomed. The idea of serving in the Italian army is 
such a matter of course to them that sometimes immi- 
grants in this country return to their native land for 
that purpose alone. The expense of the army and navy 
is, however, so great that it acts as an indirect stimulus 
to emigration. 

Although the conditions that prevail in Russia are as 
hard for the peasants as those in other European countries. 

' Italian immigration, Political Science Quarterly, vol. 4, p. 480. 

^ Report of the commissioners of immigration upon the causes which 
incite immigration to the United States, p. 290. 

^ Why they come, North American Review, 134, 347. 

* In Chicago, out of 13,048 families investigated, 305 persons had 
assisted friends in Italy to emigrate. They had sent altogether $19,- 
384.75, or I63.56 each. Bulletin of the department of labor, 13. 



313] Causes of Immigration 7 

comparatively few Russians outside the Jewish popu- 
lation come to this country. And this emigration of the 
Jews is not the result of economic conditions alone, but 
is chiefly due to the burdensome restrictions imposed by 
the government, restrictions which have made life for 
many of the Jews in Russia almost unendurable. In 
making these regulations the Czar is merely carrying 
out the old policy of Russia, that of restricting a people 
who are at best most unwelcome, but who have unfor- 
tunately become more and more of a burden with every 
acquisition of territory. The abnormal Jewish emigra- 
tion of the last few years is the result of an edict of the 
Czar in 1882, known as the " May laws," which caused 
the reinforcement of former regulations that had not 
been observed for a number of years. In former times 
the residence of the Jews had been restricted ordinarily 
to fifteen provinces in the western part of Russia, known 
as the "Jewish pale of settlement." In 1885 the laws 
were relaxed and Jewish artisans were permitted to 
settle in the interior of Russia, as there was a scarcity 
of this class of laborers. Accordingly a large number 
of Jews, following a variety of occupations, settled in 
different parts of Russia. In 1880 a decree gave the 
right of residence outside the pale to all who were then 
living outside. The May laws of 1882 marked the be- 
ginning of a new series of regulations which have been 
enforced more and more rigorously. 

The regulations concerning the Jews are manifold,^ 
but some of the most important require that all except 
certain favored classes shall settle not merely within the 
pale but within the towns of the pale. Only those Jews 
who belong to old agricultural colonies are allowed to 
remain in the country districts. Moreover they are pro- 

' See Arnold White, The modern Jew, for these regulations. 



8 American Econoynic Association [314 

hibited from " owning, holding on lease, or even manag- 
ing land," and, in order to keep them from trading with 
the inhabitants of neighboring countries, they are not 
allowed to settle within thirty-three miles of the bound- 
aries of the pale.' The Jews have been obliged to move 
from one district after another, either on account of the 
direct application of the laws or as the result of petty 
persecutions, until none of those who remain feel secure. 
In many cases the notice to move has been so short as 
to give them insufficient time for the disposal of their 
property, and those who could not raise the means of 
transportation have been conveyed to their destination 
per etape^ that is, with prison gangs. In this way the 
pale of settlement soon became overcrowded with a 
multitude of poor Jews, many of whom had no means of 
livelihood, so that their very existence was threatened. 
Even the Jews came to realize that mere exchange of 
commodities could not furnish subsistence for all. Re- 
lief came through the Jewish philanthropist. Baron de 
Hirsh, who furnished the means whereby thousands of 
the poorest — and, on the whole, the least desirable — 
might reach this country. The unhappy plight of the 
Jews in Russia still continues, for the Czar seems deter- 
mined to eradicate them as a dangerous pest. 

The Russian side of the story is that the safety of 
the Russian peasantry and the preservation of the state 
to the Russians require the sacrifice of the Jews.. The 
Russian peasants as well as the state are becoming bank- 
rupt, and the property of the country is rapidly passing 
into the hands of the wealthy Jews. An article in the 
Century Magazine in 1882^ gives a strong presentation 

' See Arnold White, The modern Jew, p. 27. 

^ Russians, Jews and gentiles, Century Magazine, April, 1882, p. 
905- 



315] Causes of Immigration 9 

of the Russian point of view. The author shows that 
the trouble between Jew and gentile is not primarily 
racial nor religious, but economic. The information in 
the article is based on a collection of documents which 
purport to reveal the inner life of Jewish communities. 
These documents were obtained by semi-official means 
and edited by Joseph Brafmann, a converted Jew and a 
teacher of Hebrew in the Seminary of Minsk. Braf- 
mann represents the Jews as " building a state within a 
state," to the great detriment of the country which they 
inhabit. The Jews are taught to regard the property 
of the gentiles as a " waste free unto all," and they are 
even authorized by their local administrative council to 
obtain possession of it " by any means whatsoever," the 
money lending process being the most efficient means. 
The organization of the local councils and the powers 
conferred upon them by the state are shown to be well 
fitted to compel the obedience of the Jews on the one 
hand and to oppress their gentile neighbors on the other. 
According to Commissioner Schulters, one-third of the 
Jews of Russia already own one-half of the property, 
although the ratio of Jews to Christians is only one to 
twenty." Notwithstanding the extensive emigration 
from the pale, the conditions, according to Arnold 
White, are steadily growing worse. Many each year 
are assisted to emigrate by the De Hirsh fund, though, 
out of consideration to the sentiment in the United 
States, they are now being sent to the Jewish colonies 
in the Argentine Republic.^ 

The condition of the Jews in Poland is superior to 
that in Russia, and emigration from there is about 
normal. The Jews in Poland have been allowed much 

' Report of the commissioners of immigration, p. 303. 
^ Report of the commissioners of immigration, p. 24. 



lo American Economic Association [316 

greater freedom than those in Russia, for it is the be- 
lief of the Russians that the presence of Jews in the 
land will weaken the Poles. 

Turning now to the countries from which emigration 
to the United States has been less remarkable than with 
the Irish, the Italians, and the Jews, and looking first at 
British America, we find that the greater part of their 
emigration is from Nova Scotia alone. Boston gets very 
few of the French Canadians who go in such large num- 
bers to the large manufacturing cities of New England. 
The British Americans belong chiefly to the artisan or 
clerking class. They are attracted to the busier life of 
the United States in the hope of finding better industrial 
opportunities. The proximity of the two countries and 
the similarity of their institutions permit a considerable 
immigration for a comparatively small economic advant- 
age. The mere desire of young people to travel causes 
many Canadians to try American life for a time. Doubt- 
less during certain parts of the year employment is more 
easily obtained in the United States ; but the cost of 
living is higher, and the result is that when work gets 
slack the majority return to their own homes. The 
estimate was made by the immigration investigating 
commission of 1895 that of the immigrants from Quebec 
to the United States not more than one-sixth came to 
this country with the intention of remaining perma- 
nently.' The large number of single persons among the 
British American immigrants is another cause of their 
mobility ; for according to the report just mentioned, 
the temporary immigrants commonly known as " birds 
of passage " are composed chiefly of single persons. 

The causes of emigration from England, Scotland, 
and Wales are not unlike those which lead to emigra- 

' Report of the immigration investigating commission, p. 162. 



317] Causes of Immigration 11 

tion from British America. The grade of emigrants is 
about the same, except that we get a more heterogeneous 
class from the industrial centers of England, Although 
the journey from Great Britain is a much greater under- 
taking than that from the British provinces, not a few 
artisans come from that country for the season, returning 
after a few months. Considering the distance, the move- 
ment of labor between Great Britain and the United 
States is very free. During the last few years nearly as 
many have returned to England as have come from that 
country. 

Most of the Germans in Boston are from the states of 
Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, and Saxony. The immigrants 
are very commonly peasants, although there are many 
skilled laborers among them. The competition of 
American wheat has been disastrous for the peasantry 
in nearly all European countries, and in Germany small 
farmers have found it necessary to get factory employ- 
ment for a part of the year in order to ensure a liveli- 
hood. Agricultural laborers in Bavaria receive from 25 
to 2)7 cents a day with board, and expert weavers are 
paid I17.00 or |i8.oo a month. ^ The large number of 
German immigrants who have been in this country 
since 1850 also act as a powerful stimulus to further 
immigration. Compulsory service in the army has been 
considered by some as a cause for emigration, but it is 
not so considered by United States Commissioner 
Schulters, who in 1891 investigated the causes which 
lead to emigration from Germany.^ 

^ Edmund Self, Why they come, North Americait Review, 134, 347. 
* Report of the commissioners of immigration, p. 288. 



CHAPTER II 

CHARACTERISTICS OF IMMIGRANTS 

The immigrants of the present day not only represent 
less hopeless social conditions than the Irish who emi- 
grated during the middle of the century, but they are 
also subject to a selective process in the form of immi- 
gration laws and of an efficient system of regulations 
which were not in force at that time. 

The first restrictive immigration law of general ap- 
plication was passed in 1882. Its purport was to refuse 
admission to convicts, lunatics, idiots, and all persons 
likely to become a public charge. Since 1885 alien 
contract laborers have also been excluded. In an act of 
1 891 the classes of excluded aliens, other than Chinese, 
were more carefully defined as follows : " All idiots, 
insane persons, paupers, or persons likely to become a 
public charge, persons suffering from a loathsome or 
dangerous contagious disease, persons who have been 
convicted of a felony or other infamous crime or mis- 
demeanor involving moral turpitude, polygamists, and 
also any person whose ticket or passage is paid for with 
the money of another, or who is assisted by others to 
come, unless it is affirmatively and satisfactorily shown on 
special inquiry that such person does not belong to one of 
the foregoing excluded classes or to the class of contract 
laborers, excluded by the act of February 26, 1885, but 
this section shall not be held to exclude persons living 
in the United States from sending for a relative or 
friend who is not of the excluded classes under such 
regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may pre- 
scribe." In 1882 a tax of fifty cents was imposed upon 
every alien passenger coming to this country by sea from 



319] Characteristics of Immigrants 13 

foreign countries, and in 1894 the amount was raised to 
one dollar, the steamship companies being obliged to 
pay the tax. 

The number of persons actually excluded on account 
of the provisions contained in these laws depends 
largely upon the judgment of the official administering 
them, but an acquaintance with the actual methods of 
applying the laws shows that reasonable precautions are 
taken. The number of persons debarred each year in- 
dicates only the minimum of the possible burden which 
the United States escapes through the operation of the 
laws, for their strict application doubtless keeps many 
undesirable persons from attempting entrance to this 
country. The following table, compiled from figures 
taken from the report of the commissioner general of 
immigration for the fiscal year 1900-01, shows the 
relative number of excluded immigrants among the 
most important nationalities : — 

Tabi,e I. — Percentages of Excluded Immigrants among 
Important Nationalities. 

Per cent Per cent 



Scandinavian .18 

Irish .39 

Portugese .46 

Northern Italian .59 

German .63 



Hebrew .84 

Scotch 1. 19 

English 1.34 

Southern Italian 1.34 



The figures in this table include only steerage passen- 
gers, and of these the English and Scotch show a large 
percentage of debarred. If the total number of alien 
passengers were taken as a basis, these two nationalities 
would have a much smaller percentage of debarred and 
would rank below the German. The order of the other 
nationalities would, however, remain unchanged. ]\Iak- 
ing allowance for those English and Scotch who do not 
come in the steerage, the greatest number of debarred 
are among the Jews and the Italians, where the percent- 



14 American Econoviic Association [320 

age, however, is decreasing somewhat from year to year. 
The order of nationalities remains pretty mnch the 
same. 

About two-thirds of all the excluded persons come 
under the head of " paupers or persons likely to become 
a public charge," but a considerable number of contract 
laborers are discovered among the Italians. The average 
financial condition of the various peoples is better indi- 
cated, however, by the amount of money actually shown 
by the immigrants upon their arrival, for, of the na- 
tionalities who have been longest here, a large num- 
ber of persons having no visible means of support are 
admitted because they have relatives in this country 
who are able to give a satisfactory guarantee of their in- 
dependence. And again with some nationalities, 
notably the English, there is a greater difference in the 
material resources of individual immigrants than is the 
case with other nationalities. To offset the paupers 
among the English immigrants there are oftentimes 
second cabin passengers who have several hundred 
dollars carefully concealed about their persons. The 
average amount of money per capita among the dif- 
ferent nationalities as compiled from the same report as 
the previous table is as follows : — 

Table II. — Average Amount of Money per Capita 

BROUGHT BY THE IMPORTANT NATIONAI^ITIES. 



English $40.00 

Scotch 36.00 

Germans 30.00 

Northern Italians 23.00 

Scandinavians 17.00 



Irish I15.00 

Portugese 11.00 

Jews 9.00 

Southern Italians 9.00 



In comparing this with the preceding table it will be 
noticed that, although a large percentage of the English 
and Scotch are debarred, those admitted are much the 
most well to do of our immigrants — and this leaves out 
of account the money brought over by second class 



32 1] Characteristics of Immigrants 15 

passengers. The Irish, on the other hand, though 
showing comparatively few exclusions, have very 
moderate funds. With the Italians and Jews we find 
the smallest average resources as well as the largest 
number of exclusions. The total amount of money 
brought into the country by immigrants during the 
fiscal year 1901 was $7,383,822 or about $15.00 per 
capita — certainly not a large amount of money with 
which to begin life in a foreign country. When immi- 
grants are provided on the average with only $9.00 each, 
as is the case with the Italians and the Jews, it is neces- 
sary that they should have good productive powers in 
order to be an economic advantage to the country. 

Certain other important characteristics belonging to 
the various groups as immigrants, such characteristics 
as sex, age, and education, may be advantageously con- 
sidered here. 

In the total population of Boston the males are in the 
minority, in 1895 being 48.43 per cent of the whole. 
This characteristic is true both of the native and of the 
foreign born, but, as will be seen from Table III, the dis- 
parity is slight for the native born, the absolute dif- 
ference being only 4040. Of the natives of New 
England, more females than males are living in the city ; 
but of those who migrate to Boston from other states, 
the males are in excess of the females. Among the 
foreign born there are 13,548 more females than males, 
but the excess comes from four nationalities only — the 
Portuguese, the Swedes, the Irish, and the British 
Americans. In every other case the males exceed the 
females. The difference in the proportion of the males 
to the total number among the various nationalities is 
considerable, ranging from 41 per cent with the British 
Americans to 60 per cent with the Italians. In most 
cases this disparity is unimportant, amounting to only a 



1 6 American Economic Association [322 

few hundred ; and the cause of almost the whole excess 
of females over males in the population of the city is 

Tabi,e III.— Percentage of Maizes in Totai. Population 
OF Boston, by Place of Birth, compiled from Fig- 
ures taken from the Massachusetts State Census 
OF 1895. 



Per cent 

Total Population 4S.43 

Boston 49-78 

Other New England__ 48.28 

United States 50-i9 

British America 41-33 

Ireland 42.48 

Sweden 45-77 

Portugal 48.80 

Negroes 50-4i 



Per cent 

England 51-59 

France 52.18 

Scotland 52.53 

Russia and Poland 53-02 

Germany 53-i8 

Canada (French) 54-55 

Norway 56.60 

Italy 60.07 



due to the Irish and the British Americans. With the 
former the excess of females is 10,753, ^"^ ^\'Ci\ the 
latter 7345. It is difficult to get representative figures 
for the British Americans, however, because, as has 
already been pointed out, a large number are temporary 
residents. But since, owing to their occupations, the 
largest number of men are likely to be here during the 
summer months and the largest number of women dur- 
ing the winter months, the census, taken in the spring 
of the year, probably comes as near to a fair average as 
is possible. 

The only case in which the excess of males is con- 
siderable is that of the Italians, with whom it amounts to 
1592 according to the census of 1895 ; but there are rea- 
sons for thinking that this number is too small. In the 
early spring Italian laborers begin to leave the city for 
their work in the country ; and as the work of enumera- 
tion for the 1895 census extended over the whole of May 
and a part of June, it can hardly be doubted that many 
Italian men who make Boston their home for a large 
part of the year were omitted. This would mean also 
that the total Italian population was larger in 1895 than 



323] Characteristics of Immigrants 17 

was indicated by the census, and such is thought to be 
the case by persons intimately acquainted with the 
Italian colony. 

The effect of the difference in the numbers of the 
sexes is greater than might be thought, because there is 
not as yet sufficient association among the various 
nationalities for the excess of males in one nationality 
to offset the excess of females in another. The result 
is that in one section of the city there is a considerable 
excess of males, and in another section a still greater 
excess of females. This local inequality of the sexes 
has an important bearing upon the social life of the 
various national groups, and consequently upon the 
moral tone of the city.^ 

The ages of Boston's population by place of birth 
cannot be obtained ; consequently statistics for immi- 
grants are given as compiled from the immigration re- 
port for 1900-01. They refer to the total number of 
immigrants. The table of illiterates is also compiled 
from the same reports, as information on this subject is 
not given in the census. 

Table IV. — Percentages of the Various Nationalities 

BELONGING TO THE THREE AGE PERIODS. 

\T„4;^,,^ut,. Between Under Over 

Nationality j^and45yrs. i^yrs. 45 yrs. 

Irish 92.13% 4-14% 3-73% 

Scandinavians 86.92 7.66 5.42 

Northern Italians 86.20 8.64 5.16 

Southern Italians 77-74 14.16 8.09 

Germans 73-84 18.82 7.34 

Scotch 73-68 15.82 10.50 

English 72.87 15-44 11.69 

Hebrews 70.74 23.40 5.86 

Portuguese 65.96 25.37 8.67 

As the native born between the ages of 14 and 45 
years comprise only 51.54 per cent of the total native 

' These facts will be considered in greater detail farther on. 
2 



i8 America7i Econotnic Association [324 

born, it will readily be seen how much larger is the 
proportion of productive laborers among all the mi- 
grating peoples than it is in a population more nearly 
normal. Almost all the Irish are included between 
these ages, the number of children among Irish immi- 
grants being very small. The smallest proportion of 
persons between the ages mentioned occurs in the case 
of the Jews and the Portuguese ; but this is because 
they, more than any other nationality, emigrate in 
families. As will be seen by the second and third 
columns of this table, the difference is in the number 
of children and not in the number of older persons. 
The Germans, English, and Scotch, and now even the 
Italians, show a large proportion of children under 14 
years of age. The number of women and children 
among the Italian immigrants has increased of late 
years, and it indicates the increased permanency of that 
immigration. But that the exceptional immigration of 
males and probably of "birds of passage" has not ceased 
is apparent from the fact that. 78.55 per cent of the 
Italian immigrants for the fiscal year 1901 were males. 
Next to the Irish the Scandinavian immigrants show 
the least tendency towards family emigration, although 
young married couples and persons intending to marry 
in this country are frequently found among the Swedish 
immigrants. 

It will be noticed that the percentages of children 
represented in the second column are in almost exactly 
the inverse order of the percentages in the first column, 
but the percentages of older immigrants given in the 
third column follow no regular order. These older 
persons are, however, the least numerous of the three 
classified ages. Pioneer immigrants from a country are 
likely to be unattached individuals, who often send for 



325] Characteristics of Immigrants 19 

other members of the family after a few years, so that 
the proportions of the different ages for a given year 
may not represent the normal. If the ages of immi- 
grants could be followed accurately from year to year, 
the number of children and of aged persons in a nation- 
ality emigrating from purely economic causes would 
probably represent a proportion steadily increasing to a 
maximum and then decreasing to the normal. 

The table has been arranged according to the apparent 
economic productive powers of the nationalities, but 
only a superficial observer would make economic energy 
the sole test of a desirable population. When one is 
beginning life in a new country, the steadying and stim- 
ulating influences of the family seem to be especially 
needful. We glance at statistics and congratulate our- 
selves that such a large percentage of our immigrants 
are productive laborers ; but the statistics do not show 
us that all these promising immigrants are industriously 
engaged in useful labor, or that the product of their 
labor is always to the advantage of this country. As to 
the larger question of whether the most healthy social 
life accompanies the largest proportion of economic 
power, the remainder of this study will perhaps give 
some light. 

There is a marked difference in the education of the 
different nationalities at the time of their arrival. 

Table V. — Percentage of Ii,i,iterates among Immi- 
grants, COMPILED FROM THE REPORT OF THE COMMIS- 
SIONER OF IMMIGRATION, I900-OI. 



Scandinavians .62 

Scotch 1.35 

English 1.63 

Irish 3.12 

Germans 3.98 



Northern Italians 12.84 

Hebrews 17.80 

Portuguese 46.19 

Southern Italians 49. 12 



Nearly all the Scandinavians can read and write, and 
immigrants from the British Isles and Germany are 



20 Arnericaii Economic Association [326 

generally literate. British America is not included in 
the table with the other countries, but doubtless it 
would rank much the same as the British Isles in this 
respect. This general literacy of the nationalities just 
mentioned is far from being equalled among some of the 
more recent immigrants. Nearly one-half of the 
southern Italians and almost as large a proportion of 
the Portuguese are illiterate. It is evident that educa- 
tion in southern Italy has not yet extended to the 
mountainous districts of the interior, whence a large pro- 
portion of our immigrants come. Statistics for the 
Portuguese ordinarily show a larger percentage of illiter- 
ates than those for the Italians. In 1899 two-thirds of 
the Portuguese immigrants were illiterate, and the 
amount of illiteracy in Portugal is much greater than in 
Italy. The northern Italians make a much better 
showing, but even their 13 per cent of illiterates tends 
to lower the general average. Eighteen per cent seems 
too large a proportion for the Hebrews, but a greater 
part of this would doubtless be found to exist among 
the women. The education of the Hebrew boys is 
much more carefully attended to than is that of the girls. 
Illiteracy among immigrants is not always, however, 
an index of their desire for an education. Immigrants 
who have been hitherto deprived of educational oppor- 
tunities sometimes make the best possible use of their 
opportunities here, though on the whole those national- 
ities who have the least education seem to appreciate it 
the least. Almost immediately upon their arrival 
children under fourteen years of age are turned into the 
schools, where they are taught to read and write, as well 
as to speak, the English language. In more than one 
school district in Boston a room is set apart for children 
who have been in this countrv less than two months. 



327] Characteristics of Immigrants 21 

The evident advantage which this beginning of an edu- 
cation gives to a family in its struggle for existence 
makes most immigrants appreciate the opportunity, but 
to the poorest immigrants the wage-earning capacity of 
the children is all important, and the school becomes an 
unwelcome necessity, although families are always glad 
to use the school as a means through which licenses may 
be obtained for selling papers or blacking boots. This 
is especially true of the poorest families of the Italians 
and the Jews, who need to use the entire wage-earning 
capacity of the family. On the whole the Italians and 
the Portuguese care less for education than the Jews, the 
sifting out of the children being more noticeable even 
in the lower grades of the schools. 

Among some of the Jewish families education seems 
to be more highly prized than it is by any other 
nationality. Not infrequently considerable sacrifice is 
made in order that a promising son may go through the 
high school or even through college. An education is 
one method of social advancement, and opportunities of 
that nature are not to be disregarded. The sole object 
of attainment for the Jew is not wealth, but power. 
He is seized with an irresistible desire to get on, and all 
means to that end are pursued with the same tenacity 
that is manifested in the pursuit of wealth. And the 
Jews have much the same capacity for success in 
education that they have in other lines. Some of 
the children are dull, but the majority are among 
the brightest in the schools. It is asserted in some of 
the schools that Jewish children graduate on the average 
a year younger than children of other nationalities. 
It is a noticeable fact, at least, that Jewish children are 
more acute than others in certain mathematical calcula- 
tions. An example may appear complicated in the 



22 America7i Economic Association [328 

book, yet the suggestion " How much do you make ? " 
clears up the matter as though a new sense had been 
brought into play. Jewish children have the greatest 
contempt for their mates who get the gains mixed up 
with the losses in a business transaction. 

Irish children make about medium progress in educa- 
tional lines. A goodly number of Irish are in the 
higher institutions of learning, though the majority of 
the children of immigrants are satisfied with a small 
amount of schooling. Very many leave school for work 
as soon as the law allows. The special characteristic of 
the Irish children is their quick-wittedness. Among 
the adult immigrants a natural keenness rather than a 
disciplined mind has been the cause of success. 

The Negroes probably make the least use of their 
educational opportunities of all the racial factors. The 
majority of this race have little ambition in educational 
lines. This does not mean that they are generally 
illiterate, for only the older ones who have seen some- 
thing of slave days are entirely uneducated ; nor does 
it mean that they do not appreciate an education. 
Many even carry their fine ideas of educational pro- 
priety to an absurd extent, as did the Negress who 
thought " all novels trash," and read nothing lighter 
than Emerson. The fact is tliat for the Negro children 
the labor of attainment is too great. In the lowest 
grades of the school these children seem exceptionally 
mature, but as they advance they become less successful 
and their interest wanes. Even the work of the gram- 
mar schools is too arduous for many. The best educated 
persons among the Negroes are usually mulattoes. 

As we proceed to a more detailed study of the charac- 
teristics which the various racial groups have developed 
in this country, we should bear in mind the characteris- 



329] Characteristics of Immigrants 23 

tics which they possess when they come to us in the 
first place. These may now be briefly summarized. 

The Irish immigration during the middle of the cen- 
tury, an immigration which made Boston an Irish city, 
was composed of persons who represented the poorest of 
social conditions. Irish immigrants of the present time 
represent greatly improved social conditions, but only 
small material resources. As most of the immigrants have 
relatives in this country, however, they are usually ad- 
mitted. A large proportion of the immigrants are 
women ; indeed, the excess of females in Boston is due 
chiefly to the Irish. Nearly all of the present immi- 
grants are single persons of an age to make themselves 
economically independent. Comparatively few of the 
Irish are wholly illiterate, although a larger number of 
illiterates come from Ireland than from other parts of the 
British Isles. 

Emigration from the British provinces gives us young 
men and a still larger number of young women who 
find in the United States more opportunities for work 
and higher wages than in their own country. As 
economic advancement is almost their only object in 
migrating, frequent return to their own country is ad- 
vantageous and has earned for them more than for any 
other nationality the name of " birds of passage." 

Both Jewish and Italian immigration represent little 
money and very poor social conditions — the poorest, in 
fact, of any of the nationalities now settling in Boston. 
Persecution has been chiefly instrumental in bringing 
the Jews. Since whole families are compelled to emi- 
grate, the Jews bring with them a larger proportion 
of children than do the other nationalities. In the case 
of the Italians, on the other hand, the majority of the 
immigrants are men, who come to this country as 



24 American Economic Association [330 

pioneers. They are mostly peasants, are generally 
illiterate, and of an age which fits them for hard manual 
labor. Some return to Italy within a few years, while 
others, settling here, send for the remaining members of 
their families. 

The immigration of the English, the Scotch, and the 
Germans is more normal than that of the peoples just con- 
sidered. In each case there is a slight majority of males. 
They bring a larger amount of money with them than 
the other nationalities, and nearly all have the rudi- 
ments of an education. The Scandinavians have the 
largest percentage of literates of any nationality, and, 
next to the Irish, the largest proportion belonging to 
the self-supporting age. But with them more women 
than men emigrate, and they bring only a little more 
money than the Irish. The Portuguese emigrate in 
families in the same proportion as do the Jews. They 
bring less money than the Irish, and are among the 
most illiterate of all the nationalities that come. 



CHAPTER III 

STANDARD OF LIVING 

Having considered the chief characteristics of the 
various racial groups as immigrants, we are prepared to 
study their social and economic life as residents of the 
country. Let us consider first their standard of living, 
including in this consideration the location, dwelling, 
and diet of the people. 

The North End, the oldest part of Boston, was one of 
the chief resorts of the Irish when they first settled here, 
and it is now the home of a large proportion of the 
recent immigrants. At present it is especially an 
Italian quarter, although Russian Jews and Irish live 
there in large numbers. Representatives of twenty-two 
other national ties, including a majority of the Portu- 
guese, are also to be found in this quarter, but none of 
these constitutes a large factor of the population. 

Although the North End is still the most noticeably 
foreign part of the city, both in the number and in the 
variety of its immigrants, it is by no means the only 
immigrant quarter. The Jews have already taken 
almost exclusive possession of the northern part of the 
West End, and in the South End and in East Boston 
they are becoming numerous. The Irish may be found 
jn large numbers in every tenement district of the city, 
and they are still one of the chief factors in the popula- 
tion of South Boston, East Boston, and Lower Roxbury. 
More Germans are living in Roxbury than in any other 
section of the city, although a goodly number are to be 
found in the South End, the district which they form- 
erly occupied. The Negroes have been living in the 
West End and in the South End almost exclusively for 



26 American Economic Association [332 

many years, but now a new section near the Roxbury 
line is becoming the most popular of all. Many of the 
English-speaking foreign inhabitants, as well as those 
Americans who have migrated to Boston from other 
parts of the United States, are denizens of lodging 
houses which are located in the greatest numbers in the 
West and South Ends.' The dwelling houses in the 
North End are nearly all tenements. Some of those on 
the principal streets are modern structures of large size, 
but in some of the back streets old wooden houses are 
preserved as tenements of a small type. The large 
tenements, which are common also in other parts of the 
city proper, have the disadvantage of lack of privacy for 
family life. Altogether too many of the utilities must 
be used in common ; sometimes a single sink placed in 
the hall does service for all the families on the floor. 

In the West End there is a peculiar type of Jewish 
tenements which were built primarily to rent, not to live 
in ; but incidentally they serve as dwellings for many 
families. These dwellings are not always new, nor are 
the alterations made in them always deep. Bay 
windows and fancy ornaments make them beautiful to 
look upon, while bells and speaking tubes raise them to 
the dignity of apartments. In fact they look as though 
the Jews had put them through the old clothes process 
and they had come out " cleaned, repaired, dyed, and 
pressed." 

A characteristic of the South End is the large num- 
ber of the tenements which have been evolved out of 
the brick dwellings of former well-to-do residents. The 
advantage of these houses is that they are small, accom- 

' See maps in "The city wilderness" and in "Americans in process" 
for the exact location of the foreign born, and also for the character 
of the buildings. 



333] Standard of Living 27 

modating from three to six families only. They are 
also well built, though their construction is ill-adapted 
to tenements, the fewest possible alterations having 
been made in them. Tenement houses in South Boston 
and in Roxbury are almost exclusively of the small 
type, but they were built for tenement houses and con- 
sequently have not the inconveniences of many of those 
in the South End. The monotony of all these districts 
is occasionally relieved by " model " tenements, or at 
least by those designed primarily for living purposes. 
And these tenements are just as available for the poor 
as are any others, for the rents are no greater than those 
charged for the less desirable rooms.' 

The following table is of interest as showing the com- 
parative numbers of each nationality living in rented 
tenements in 1891 : — 

Tabi^e VI. — Proportions of the Various Nationalities 
LIVING IN Rented Tenements in 1891. 

T.T i- 1-1 Estimated No. in Rented Percent- 

Nationality Population Tenements'^ age 

Germany 10,470 6,454 61.64 

Other states ot U. S. 64,419 40,449 62.79 

Massachusetts 231,130 152,449 65.95 

Great Britain and colonies 18,453 12,286 66.58 

Ireland 71,467 47,864 -66.97 

Norway and Sweden 4.588 3,210 70.00 

British America 39,476 29,391 74-45 

Portugal 956 1,000 

Italy 5,354 5,922 

Russia 5,840 7,911 

The population for 1891 is estimated from the number, 
given in the federal census of 1890 and the state census 
of 1895. In the case of the Portuguese, Italians, and 
Russians, a larger number were actually found in the 
tenements alone in 1891 than the total population ac- 

^ See the Eighth special report of the U. S. commissioner of labor, 
p. 188. 

* Twenty-third annual report of the Massachusetts bureau of statis- 
tics of labor, p. 188. 



28 American Econo^nic Association [334 

cording to the estimate ; therefore the growth of these 
nationalities in 1890-91 must have been proportionately 
larger than it was during the following years. At the 
same time we may safely conclude that practically all 
the families of these nationalities were living in rented 
tenements. A larger number of Germans than of 
Americans were living in homes of their own, though 
under " Massachusetts " are included all the children of 
the foreign born. The British and Irish come next to 
the Americans, with about equal proportions. The 
Scandinavians who come next show a large percentage 
owning homes when we consider how large a propor- 
tion of them have come within recent years. The small 
number of British Americans is the natural result of the 
temporary character of that immigration. 

In some of the large tenement houses of the principal 
streets of the North End, as well as in the smaller tene- 
ments of the back alleys, the Italians live in a more 
crowded manner than any other people in the city. In 
1891, when the tenement house census of Boston was 
taken, two precincts of the North End occupied almost 
exclusively by Italians contained 259 families, or more 
than one-fourth of the total population, who were living 
on an average of two persons to a room ; and 154 of 
these families were occupying single rooms. The aver- 
age number of persons to a room for the two precincts 
was 1.41. Since that time the board of health has 
ordered vacated some of the least sanitary of these houses 
and has improved the condition of others ; in 1895, how- 
ever, the average density of the population for the whole 
ward and probably also for these precincts was found to 
have increased somewhat, and in 1899 individual cases of 
crowding were discovered which were worse than those 



335] Standard of Living 29 

reported in 1891/ A partial census of another part of 
the North End, taken in 1898, shows comparatively 
little change in the average density of the population. 
In 1891 the average number of persons to a room was 
found to be 1.37, and in 1898 1.39.^ 

One of the most objectionable features of the crowd- 
ing of the Italians is found in the mode of life of the 
sino-le men. Ten or twelve men together will rent one 
room of a tenement, each paying 25 or 30 cents a week. 
They are entitled to a fire for the cold winter days, and 
the woman occupying the tenement agrees to have some 
care of their clothing. This is their home for the time 
being. During the winter much of their leisure is spent 
in their rooms or in the saloons drinking beer or play- 
ing cards. In many cases beer is one of the chief items 
of expense, for the food of the Italians is as inexpensive 
as their lodgings. Two meals a day, sufficiently elabo- 
rate to repair the vital forces expended in card-playing, 
can be obtained for about a dollar a week.^ ]\Iost of the 
recent immigrants, whether single men or families, have 
their eyes open for every possible means of economy. 
Italian women walking majestically through the streets, 
with great bundles of waste wood on their head, show 
their ability for obtaining cheap fuel. And children not 
infrequently are sent to the large markets to gather veg- 
etables which have been thrown away because no longer 
fresh.* 

' See Harold K. Estabrook, pamphlet, Some slums in Boston. 
2 Labor bulletion No. 11, July, 1S99. 

' See Bulletin of the department of labor, 13, p. 722. An investi- 
gation of 742 Italian families, including 37 11 persons in Chicago, 
showed that the cost of food per week averaged 82 cents for each 
member of the family. 

* See Bulletin of the department of labor, 13, p. 722. 



30 American Ecoiioniic Associatio7i [336 

The Jews in the North and West Ends are only a 
little less densely crowded than the Italians. In two of 
the precincts which they occnpy in the North End, ac- 
cording to the tenement house census of Boston taken 
in 1891, 230 families, or nearly one-fourth of the whole 
number, were living with an average of more than 
two persons to a room. In the case of the Jews it means 
a larger number of children and fewer adults than in 
the case of the Italians. Well-to-do Jewish families, 
even more frequently than Italian families, occupy 
cramped quarters. It suits those in modest circum- 
stances as well as the poor, for small owners desire to 
receive as much and tenants wish to give as little of 
the unearned increment as possible. The poor Jews 
are probably the least cleanly in their houses of all 
nationalities if we compare only those Italians who live 
in families. House cleaning seems to be so religiously 
set apart for holiday observance only that even Jewish 
landlords, it is said, prefer to rent their houses to other 
nationalities. In the matter of food the Jews have a 
much higher standard of living than the Italians. Beef 
and poultry are staples, instead of vegetables as with 
the Italians. Marketing is an important part of the 
life in their quarter. Towards evening hucksters of all 
kinds of food supplies turn the streets into veritable 
markets, offering their products at prices somewhat be- 
low those of the regular dealers. 

The most congested portions of the Irish districts are 
in South Boston. In two districts of old ward 13, which 
was situated in the northern part of the island, the aver- 
age number of persons to a room in 1891 was found to 
be 1.24, although hardly any tenements contained more 
than two persons to a room. The Irish usually keep 
their tenements cleaner than either the Jews or the 



337] Standard of Living 31 

Italians. The number of unthrifty Irish, however, 
strikes an observer as being very large, and with this 
class home life is shiftless and disorderly. The Irish 
have no natural instinct for economy. That character- 
istic which is generosity with one class is carelessness 
with another. Frequently they pay more than is neces- 
sary for rent, and are wasteful in their marketing, with 
the result that the standard of life in Irish families 
would often indicate a smaller wage than is actually re- 
ceived. The more thrifty class of Irish raise their 
standard of living pretty rapidly as their incomes in- 
crease, and they readily adopt American standards. 

In that part of Roxbury occupied by Germans the 
population is less dense and the tenements are lighter 
and in better condition than those in the North End or 
in many of the other tenement sections of the city. The 
German differs from most immigrants in the value he 
sets upon physical comforts. He does not select a hole 
in the ground for an abode, and he does not prefer fine 
raiment to a good dinner. According to some standards 
the Germans might be considered extravagant, but they 
are more thrifty than the Irish, and consequently can 
maintain a higher standard with the same expenditure. 

In the colored quarters many instances of crowding 
are met with, but the average density is not high. In 
only one precinct which lies partly within the colored 
quarter in the West End is the average density more 
than one person to a room. Many of the Negro tene- 
ments are in alley-ways, and these are liable to be very 
poor. The poorer class of Negroes probably spend less 
on their lodgings than do almost any other people ex- 
cept the Italians. In this regard the contrast is 
especially marked between Negroes and Americans 
living in lodging houses. Of those receiving the same 



32 American Economic Association [338 

wages, the Negro will save by living in an uncomfort- 
able and unsanitary room, while the American will 
economize in almost every other way in order to have a 
more homelike apartment. In the matter of food the 
Negroes usually live as well as their incomes will permit. 
They do not stint themselves in this line, and they do 
not like to see others go hungry. Then the Negroes 
nearly always keep their quarters tidy. It must be ad- 
mitted as especially true of Negroes that the more suc- 
cessful wage-earners spend a large proportion of their in- 
comes upon clothing, decorations, and sensual pleasures. 

The question of sanitation in tenements is distinct 
from that of crowding. The most densely crowded ten- 
ements are not always the least sanitary ones, although 
on the whole the Italians occupy the least sanitary as 
well as the most crowded quarters. The following table, 
taken from the tenement house census of Boston for 
1891, shows the proportions of the three chief nation- 
alities who were occupying unsanitary tenements in 
parts of the North and West Ends. The whole of the 
sixth ward was in the North End, and the seventh ward 
extended from the North End into the West End. 
Throughout the North End a large proportion of the 
Italian and Jewish residents were living in objectionable 
tenements. In one precinct of the North End more than 
half the Irish inhabitants were occupying unsanitary 
dwellings, but in the other sections the percentage of 
the Irish was much below that of either the Italians or 
the Jews. 

The seventh ward contained the largest number of 
unsanitary tenements of any part of the city. In pre- 
cinct 3 nearly all the Italians occupied unsanitary 
houses, and in precincts 4 and 5 a large percentage of 
the total population lived in objectionable tenements. 



339] Standard of Living 33 

Table VII. — Percentages of the Three given Nation- 
alities LIVING in Tenements " Poor and Bad " in at 
LEAST One Respect.' 

Ward Precinct Irish Italians Russians 

6 I 54-78 31.03 55.36 

2 9.22 34.53 18.63 

3 18.59 4963 29.17 

4 29.65 65.61 40.17 

5 13.71 38.48 21.47 

7 I 13-19 65.11 11.63 

2 12.98 57.72 24.32 

3 19.57 86.79 37-10 

4 46.59 70-72 80.38 

5 43-20 62.64 78.29 



Average 27.148 56.226 39652 

In these last mentioned precincts the proportion of the 
Jewish residents was the largest. The average for the 
two wards shows the poorer situation of the Italians, for 
over one-half of their number were occupying unsani- 
tary quarters as against forty per cent of the Russians 
and twenty-seven per cent of the Irish. This is the only 
part of the city in which a comparison of this kind can 
be made among the different nationalities. In other sec- 
tions the unsanitary houses were less numerous, but not 
a few were in the Irish districts of the South End and of 
South Boston and in the Negro quarters of the West End. 

To understand the environment of many of the Eng- 
lish-speaking immigrants, we must turn from the tene- 
ment house to the lodging house. Representatives of 
nearly all the nationalities are to be found in the lodg- 
ing houses, but a large percentage of the British Ameri- 
cans and English occupy them, and most of the houses 
are kept by British Americans or by Americans who 
have come to Boston from other parts of New England. 
Boarding and lodging houses in the census definition of 
the term include those houses " occupied entirely for 
the accommodation of boarders and lodgers and contain, 

' Tenement house census of Boston, 1891. 

3 



34 



Afnericaji Economic Association [340 



except in a few cases, more than fifteen residents." ' In 
1891 there were 1642 such houses, and they had a pop- 
lation of 27,512. This number has greatly increased, 
however, for in 1895 54,442 boarders and lodgers were 
enumerated, and consequently they now form no incon- 
siderable part of the population. This last figure, how- 
ever, includes all boarders and lodgers wherever found, 
while the first simply gives the number of inhabitants 
of lodging houses as above described. 

Lodgers are by no means confined to houses of this 
description. Many apartments spare an extra room for 
the accommodation of one or two lodgers, and even 
more frequently lodgers are crowded into tenement 
rooms of scant dimensions. Small rooms with no out- 
side windows and even parts of rooms are let for lodg- 
ings, and in this way a single man can get sleeping ac- 
commodations for fifty cents a week. The crowding to 
which this gives rise among the Italians has already 
been noted, and among the Irish and the Negroes over- 
crowding of the same nature is of frequent occurrence. 

There are several grades of regular lodging houses. 
The Beacon Hill district and parts of the vSouth End 
contain boarding and lodging houses which offer very 
comfortable homes to persons who are not in a position 
to have homes of their own. From these there is an 
almost uninterrupted scale of descent to tramps' lodg- 
ings. The average lodging house is neither unendur- 
able nor yet very comfortable. It is usually one which 
has been deserted by its former owner and occupied on ac- 
count of its undesirable location, and is rented to some 
person or persons who are willing to speculate upon 
their future livelihood by caring for lodgers. Beneath 
their calm exteriors these houses are actually struggling 

' Massachusetts state census, 1895, vol. i, p. 538. 



34 1 ] Standard of Living 35 

for existence on the one hand and for respectability on 
the other. The conditions in some parts of the South 
End are such as to place the combination of these two 
attributes in almost unstable equilibrium, and most 
houses prefer to sacrifice a bit of their meagre store of 
respectability in order to continue their existence, rather 
than to keep up a stern and threatening attitude of 
propriety in the face of a yearly deficit. 

The lodgers themselves are clerks, salesmen, sales- 
women, mechanics, waitresses, and unskilled laborers, 
young people full of hope for business success in the 
city, and older persons with small incomes and chronic 
lodging house habits. The rooms occupied vary greatly 
both in price and in comfort. A large front room costs 
$4.00 or ^5.00 a week and is usually occupied by two 
persons. The corresponding room in the rear is about 
a dollar cheaper. Side rooms with one window and 
very little space not occupied by the scant furniture 
may be had for $1.50 or $2.00 a week. These rooms 
are always the most easily rented as they best suit the 
purses of the majority of lodgers. The popular dining 
rooms for lodgers are to be found in the basements of 
many lodging houses, though usually they are under 
separate management. The expressive sign, " Ladies 
$3.00, Gents $3.50," indicates to the initiated what 
may be had within. The boarder must provide himself 
with a meal ticket, and this is carefully punched by a 
sharp-eyed individual when he leaves the room. This 
lodging house class, whether composed of rural Ameri- 
cans or of foreign immigrants, is for the most part in a 
different social and industrial position from those who 
crowd the tenement sections, and should be carefully 
distinguished from the mass of immigrants. Ordinarily 
these lodgers have a higher social standard and are 



36 American Economic Association [342 

struggling to maintain it. To do this they remain single 
and stick to the lodging house. In making a study of 
the population of a city, it is misleading to group the 
tenement and the lodging house classes together, simply 
because they may all be immigrants. The social 
characteristics of the two classes are likely to differ 
widely. 

To recapitulate : it will be seen that the environment 
and standard of life of the racial groups in Boston corre- 
spond pretty closely to their characteristics as immi- 
grants. The Jews who have known no other life than 
that of the ghettoes of European cities find no incon- 
venience in the crowding and filth of Boston slums. 
Their lives hitherto have been greatly restricted, and a 
beginning is made here with very slender resources ; but, 
since they are possessed with an irresistible desire to get 
on, immediate comfort is subordinated to this end, prob- 
ably with little sense of sacrifice. 

The Italians, a large number of whom are single men 
migrating for purely economic reasons, are living in the 
most crowded and on the whole the most unsanitary 
quarters of the North End, and are maintaining a stand- 
ard of life which insures the greatest amount of saving 
possible. 

The Irish who came during the middle of the century 
were exceedingly poor and occupied correspondingly 
wretched quarters. They have now had time to im- 
prove their condition, and in general their standard of 
life has been raised in the same degree. The more suc- 
cessful conform pretty closely to American standards. 
The poorer class, however, occupy somewhat better 
homes than the Italians or Jews, but live on a low plane 
through ignorance and shiftlessness, rather than through 
a desire to save. 



343] Standard of Living 37 

The Negroes, who have been used to little freedom 
and independence in action, lack judgment and prudence 
in the use of their resources, and their manner of living 
shows little of the Hebrew sense of provision for the 
future. Homelike, healthful surroundings are sacrificed 
in order that a love of personal display and the more 
sensual appetites may be gratified. 

The Germans and Scandinavians have been accus- 
tomed to better social conditions than any of these. As 
immigrants they are more literate and are in better 
financial circumstances, and they maintain a higher 
standard of living in this country. 

The better class of British Americans and English 
have some resources to begin on, and they are in much 
the same situation as American immigrants from the 
rural districts. Many of them dwell in lodging houses 
which form temporary and often desolate substitutes for 
homes, but which enable them to maintain a somewhat 
higher social standard than the majority of immigrants. 
At the same time another class of persons from these 
countries is to be found in some of the poorest tenement 
districts, incapable of maintaining a standard of life much 
above the line of dependence. 



CHAPTER IV 

VITALITY 

Passing now to a more detailed study of the individual 
characteristics of the nationalities themselves, let us 
consider first the birth and death rates. The death rates 
will give us a rough idea of the racial vigor of the dif- 
ferent groups, while a comparison of the figures for 
births and deaths will show the relative rate of multipli- 
cation. This rate of natural increase is all-important as 
showing from what nationalities and under what condi- 
tions of life the next generation is to come. 

The impossibility of obtaining exactly comparable 
statistics for births and deaths by nationality should be 
clearly understood at the outset. In a comparison of 
the statistics obtainable, the difficulty for the most part 
lies in the comparison of figures for the foreigners with 
those of the Americans, because a second or third 
generation of foreigners has to be considered as " native- 
born," and, as a result, the groups are abnormal in 
composition. Take, for example, the mortality statistics 
by parent nativity. The third generation of foreigners 
— which should be very young persons — is included with 
the Americans, and therefore gives a disproportionatel)^ 
large number of children to the native group. Now if 
the children are mostly under five years, a period at 
which the death rate is high, the addition of this class 
to the native born would tend to raise the death rate 
among them and lower it correspondingly among the 
foreign groups. As a matter of fact, however, the death 
rate for the native group in Table VIII is about the 
same as for the whole of Massachusetts, and only a little 
higher than that for northern European countries. 



345] Vitality 39 

Infants under five years of age, with whom the death 
rate is high, may be offset in this case by children over 
ten years of age, with whom the death rate is low. At 
any rate the error seems to be slight, and the mortality 
statistics may be considered roughly comparable. 

The error in reckoning the birth rate is, however, more 
troublesome. In this case the second generation of for- 
eigners is included with the natives, and the inaccuracy 
applies particularly to the more recent immigrants, who 
are multiplying rapidly. This large addition of young 
persons to the native group makes the birth rate for them 
too small and that for the foreign group somewhat too 
large. The abnormal birth rates obtained for the for- 
eign groups is due only in a slight measure to the cause 
just explained. Foreign immigrant groups do not 
represent normal populations, for, since immigrants on 
arrival belong for the most part to the reproductive age, 
the birth rate among groups recently arrived is ab- 
normally large. The figures given in Table IX do not 
represent the relative fecundity of the various groups 
in Boston, but rather their actual rate of increase. 

The mortality rates in Table VIII are computed from 
the number of deaths as compiled by the board of 
health. In order to avoid any irregularities which 
might occur in a single year, the number per thousand 
of the population is found by taking the average number 
of deaths for each nationality for the three years 1894, 
1895, and 1896 and dividing this by the number of 
the different nationalities as given in the state census of 
1895. The rates for parent nativity are also given, and 
they are of more significance than those for place of 
birth, because they indicate more closely the true 
national groups. 



40 American Ecoiioviic Association [346 

TABI.E VIII. — Rates of Mortai^ity by Pi^ace of Birth 

AND Parent Nativity for the Various Ethnic Groups 

IN Boston, i 894-96. ^ 

Place of Birth No. of Deaths Rate 

City 11,494 23.12 

Negroes 305% 32.27 

Ireland 2,055 28.75 

United States 7,692% 24.33 

Scotland 90}^ 19.26 

England 238)^ 17-92 

Germany 187 i7-i4 

British America 6891^ 16.27 

Italy 118 14-93 

Other countries 232% I3-I5 

Russia (1895) 73 6.09 

Unknown .. 138^^ 

Rate in Country 
Parentage No. of Deaths Rate Given,''- 

^895 

Other countries 853 41-37 

Italy 294 25.88 25.3 

Ireland 3,681% 24.94 18.4 

United States 2,635% i9-03 i9.(Mass.) 

British America 691% 17-34 

Mixed parentage 997 17.00 

England 262% 1 . 18.7 

Scotland 141% j-io-io ^^^ 

Russia 270 1595 

Germany 304% i4-7i 22.11 

Unknown 1,158 

Since the death rate for the city as a whole is 23, the 
Negroes, the Irish, and natives of the United States 
have a higher rate than the average. The mortality of 
the native born is ordinarily higher than that of the 
foreign born, because the native children of foreigners 
are included in the native born, and because the foreign 
immigrants have a smaller proportion of aged persons. 
According to the United States census of 1890, the death 
rate for the native born was 25.93, and that for the 
foreign 22.25. This being the case, the high death rate 
of the Irish is all the more surprising. As the Irish, 
however, have been in this country longer than most of 

' Compiled from the reports of the Boston board of health. 
^ British blue books, 105, No. 25, p. 104, and No. 46, p. 253. 



347] Vitality 41 

the other nationalities, they doubtless have a larger pro- 
portion of aged persons. At the same time the Germans, 
who have been here nearly as long, show no such high 
rate of mortality. 

As is the case in other parts of the country, the mor- 
tality of the Negroes is greater than that of the whites. 
In Boston it is larger than that of any other ethnic 
group. The national census of 1890^ gave the death 
rate of the Negroes in Boston as 33.29 and that of the 
whites as 24.62. Much the same result was obtained 
by Frederick ly. Hoffman in his study of the Negro 
race. The death rate in ten of the Southern cities was : 
whites, 20.12 ; colored, 32.61." He found, further- 
more, that the colored were subject to a higher death 
rate for all diseases of infants and for consumption, 
pneumonia, scrofula, venereal diseases, and malarial 
fevers. 

The Scotch, English, Germans, and British Americans 
have moderately low death rates. The Italians, how- 
ever, have an even lower death rate, notwithstanding 
their unhealthful mode of life. The cause is probably 
the youth and health of the Italian peasants who im- 
migrate. 

Perhaps the most remarkable figures in the table are 
those for the Russian Jews — 6.09. This low rate of 
mortality is confirmed from other sources. A special 
investigation of the vital statistics of Jewish families 
made by the bureau of statistics of labor for 1890 gave 
the average death rate for about 12,000 Jews as 7. 11, 
and for the eastern states as 6.29.^ According to this 
report, deaths among the Jews are very seldom due to 

^ vital statistics, pt. 11, p. 5. 

^ Race traits and tendencies of the American Negro, p. 39. 

^ Twelfth census bulletin No. 19. 



42 American Econoviic Association [348 

consumption, but are due to diphtheria much more com. 
monly than is the case with other peoples. 

The value of the second part of Table VIII, the death 
rate by parent nativity, is perhaps affected somewhat by 
the large number of cases in which the parentage was 
unknown. Still some of the more striking changes may 
be noted. The rise in the death rate among the Italians 
from 14.93 when reckoned by place of birth to 25.88 by 
parent nativity shows that their unhealthful environ- 
ment and low standard of life has its effect upon the 
second generation if not upon the first. The difference 
must be due for the most part to the high infant 
mortality. The same thing seems to be true of the less 
important nationalities given under the head of "other 
countries." These smaller nationalities together include 
a considerable number of deaths, and the rate is even 
higher among them than it is among the Negroes. The 
death rate for the native Americans falls from 24.33 ^^ 
19.03 as a result of excluding the native born of foreign 
parentage. This rate would be lowered still further if 
it were not for the fact that the Negroes were included 
with the whites in the statistics for parent nativity. 

According to Table VIII, the Irish, English, Scotch, 
and Germans have a smaller death rate by parent 
nativity than by place of birth ; but owing to the large 
number of cases in which the parent nativity is un- 
known, we cannot conclude with certainty that the 
mortality of the second generation in each of these cases 
is smaller than that of the first. The mortality of the 
second generation of the Jews is greater than that of the 
first, the rate rising from 6.09 to 15.95. This shows, as 
in the case of the Italians, the effect of poor environment 
upon the children. Even with this difference in the 
death rate, however, the mortality of the Jews is remark- 



349] Vitality 43 

ably low. The low death rate obtained for the Germans, 
14.71, is in contradiction to the fact that employees of 
breweries are ordinarily subject to a high death rate. 
However, the Jews among the Germans probably lower 
the average rate of mortality, and furthermore all Ger- 
mans live in fairly sanitary quarters, so that the mor- 
tality of the Germans would not be likely to be high, 
even though the parentage of all deaths had been re- 
ported. 

The death rates of the various nationalities in Boston 
bear little resemblance to the death rates in the countries 
from which they come. In European countries these 
rates decrease quite uniformly with the temperature, the 
northern countries having the smallest death rates. The 
high mortality of the Italians in Boston corresponds to 
that in Italy ; but in opposition to these figures, the rate 
for Ireland is low and that for the German Empire is 
high. 

The difference in the death rates of the second genera- 
tion of the Irish, Italians, and Jews is noticeable, and 
deserves further consideration. It cannot be due to the 
immediate environment, because the Jews are living in 
as poor surroundings as are the Irish, and nearly as poor 
as the Italians. In accounting for the difference it may 
be noted that the position of children is different among 
the Jews from what it is among the poor Irish and 
Italians. Family life is more complete with the Jews, 
and children are held in greater esteem. This is usually 
the case with peoples among whom the patriarchal idea 
of the family persists. Whenever, on the other hand, 
the idea of individual happiness takes precedence over 
family unity, divorce becomes more frequent and large 
families are looked upon as a misfortune. In addition 
to this difference in sentiment of parents towards 



44 American Economic Association [350 

children, the Jewish religion teaches specific hygienic 
rules which doubtless help to preserve the lives of the 
children. 

In mentioning these very general race characteristics 
there is no intention of ignoring the exceptions. It is 
true that desertions, if not divorces, are not infrequent 
among the Jews ; and in many cases children are treated 
with anything but tenderness. Nor is there any inten- 
tion of minimizing the love which even the very poor 
Irish and Italian parents have for their children. Their 
sentiment, however, seems to be of a somewhat different 
character. The pleasure which they derive from their 
children is more of a personal matter, and affection 
varies more readily with the mood of the parent. That 
Johnny will sometime take his father's position and con- 
tinue the house of the Murphy's is not the fondest hope 
of the Irish parent, though the probability that he will 
do so cannot be doubted. The love of the Irish parent 
is evident enough, but it is too often an impulsive, irra- 
tional, physical love. The ill health of Irish children 
is too often brought about by a disregard of the simplest 
rules of health. Mere infants are given half baked 
beans or cucumbers to eat, and if they fall ill their 
mothers show their love by giving them some delicacy 
like beer or ginger ale. If we could once grasp the 
number of things that Irish and Italian parents do not 
know, their high infant mortality would not seem so 
surprising. 

The figures for births in Table IX are taken from the 
reports of the city registrar. They are not so complete 
and reliable as could be desired, but the rates differ so 
greatly for the different nationalities that a general com- 
parison can be made, even though the rates are not 
exact. Births have not been reported of late years by 



35 1] Vitality 45 

nationality, and averages for 1889 and 1890 are the 
latest that can be obtained. At this time reliance was 
placed chiefly upon a house to house canvas for informa- 
tion concerning births, the present system of physicians' 
reports dating from 1892/ 

The rates in Table IX are obtained by dividing the 
number of births, which are given according to the 
nativity of parents, by the number of persons born in 
the specified country, as reported in the United States 
census of 1890. Births of mixed parentage are divided 
equally between the two nationalities to which the 
parents belong. As has been said, this gives the actual 
increase by propagation of the various groups, but does 
not permit a comparison of their natural fecundity, as 
the age periods and proportion of the sexes vary greatly 
among the different nationalities. 

Table IX. — Birth Rates for Various Ethnic Groups 
IN Boston for 1889-90.' 

Rate in 
Birth Place of Parents Number Rate Country 

Specified* 

Total for the City ^g.^i 

United States 4,777 16.40 

Negroes 227^ 28.00 

Holland 11 30.30 32.80 

Switzerland 13^^ 31.80 28.00 

France 30^ 34-8o 21.70 

Scotland 181 40.30 30.40 

England and Wales 564 41.00 30.30 

British America 1,625)^ 42.40 

Ireland 3,256 45.60 23.20 

Germany 497^ 48.00 36.10 

Sweden I77>^ 52.00 27.50 

Norway 51 59-20 30.60 

Austria and Hungary __ 44 80.30 37.70 and 41.5 

Russia and Poland 497>^ 94.60 

Italy 493)4 104.60 35.20 

Unknown 507 

' See report of the city registrar for 1893. 

^ Compiled from reports of the city registrar. 

3 British blue books, 105, No. 25, p. 14, and 104, No. 46, p. 253. Still 
births are excluded. 



46 American Economic Association [352 

According to the report of the Massachusetts board of 
health for 1896, the birth rate for the state was 16.58 
for native born and 50,40 for foreign born. This figure 
for the natives of the state corresponds very closely to 
that for the native whites in Boston. The rate for the 
colored is considerably higher than that for the native 
whites, but is smaller than that of any of the foreign 
born. Among the foreign born the rate for all the older 
immigrants is below the average of the total foreign 
born in Massachusetts, and the rate for the more recently 
immigrating foreigners is above the average. The 
obvious conclusion to be drawn is that after a few years 
the enormously high birth rate of the Jews and Italians 
will fall to that of the Irish and Germans. It is also 
probable that the birth rate of the Jews and Italians will 
fall somewhat, but there are two reasons for believing 
that it will remain higher than that of other nationali- 
ties : First, the birth rate of the Irish and the 
Germans, which is now the highest of the older na- 
tionalities, has never been nearly so high as that of the 
Italians and Jews of the present time. The birth rate 
of the Irish in 1845 was 67.7, and in 1850 it was 52.3, 
and that of the Germans 56.4. Secondly, the European 
birth rate of the Jews is much higher than that of other 
peoples, and the birth rate in Italy is much higher than 
that in Ireland, though it is the same as in Germany. The 
birth rate is seldomly reported for the Jews alone ; but, 
wherever it is given, it is uniformly above that of the 
rest of the population. Of the Jews in Poland Arnold 
White says : " The Polish Jews have multiplied as no 
other race has multiplied. They are increasing at four 
times the rate of the Russians who think themselves the 
most prolific race in Christendom.'" 

' Arnold White, The modern Jew, p. 37. 



353] Vitality 47 

For a further analysis of these figures let us turn to 
Table X, where the natural increase of the ethnic fac- 
tors is shown by the difference between births and 
deaths. Although, owing to the inaccuracies already 
mentioned in compiling these figures, the two sets are 
not exactly comparable, the table is nevertheless 
sufficiently accurate for a rough comparison of the 
relative rates of increase of the various groups. And 
the figures are supplemented and for the most part con- 
firmed by a second method of reckoning the natural rate 
of increase given in the last column of the table — by 
estimating the percentage of increase of the native born 
of foreign parentage for the five years from 1890 to 
1895. Po^ example, an increase of the native born of 
Irish parentage for the five years ending 1895 was 3133, 
which is 4.37 per cent of 71,441, the number of the 
Irish in the city in 1890. This method gives very 
nearly the true rate of increase by propagation of each 
nationality, except that it does not allow for migrations 
to and from the city. Of course there is a slight irregu- 
larity arising from the fact that some nationalities were 
increasing by immigration more rapidly than others. 
As the native born children of foreigners immigrating 
between the years 1890 and 1895 are included with the 
others, the nationalities immigrating most rapidly dur- 
ing those years would show a disproportionately large 
rate of natural increase, because the percentages are 
compiled on the basis of the population in 1890. The 
rate differs so much, however, that the order of nation- 
alities is unchanged if the percentages are based upon 
the population statistics for 1895 instead of those for 
1890. Therefore this inaccuracy may be practically 
disregarded. The possible errors in the table have been 
fully set forth, but it is not probable that they are suf- 



48 American Eco7iomic Association [354 

ficiently large to affect its real purpose, which is to find 
the relative positions of the various ethnic factors, in 
order that a fair comparison of them may be made. 
The absolute figures of the rates are of minor im- 
portance. 

The death rates in this table are not those given in 
Table VIII, but are for the same years as the birth rates, 
1889-90. The order of nationalities is very nearly the 
same as that given in Table VIII. A smaller number 
were reported " unknown" in 1889-90, and therefore 
the percentages are probably somewhat more accurate. 

Tabi^e X. — Naturai. Increase of the Various Ethnic 

Groups in Boston. 

Death Per C ent of Increase 
Nation- Birth Rate Differ- of Native Born of 
ality rate {^Parent ence Foreign Parent- 
Nativity) age, i8go-g5 

Negroes 28.00 30.80 — 2.80 

United States __ 16.40 17.20 — 0.80 — 3.67 

Ireland 45.60 25.20 20.40 4.37 

France 34.80 6.90 

British America 42.40 17.40 25.00 6.39 

Scotland 4030 15.70 24.60)2.: 40 7-^1 

England 41.00 14.70 26.30/ '''^ " " ''^ 

Germany 48. 00 15.00 33.00 7.03 

Sweden 52.00 10.85 

Russia 94.60 15.90 78.70 25.05 

Italy 104.60 25.30 79.30 21.25 

The striking figures for the persons born in the United 
States, showing a higher death rate than birth rate, 
though apparently confirmed by the figures in the last 
column, cannot be considered conclusive, because the 
birth rate for the United States, as has been said, is 
doubtless somewhat too small. The decrease in the 
number of persons of American parentage shown in 
the last column may be due to the large migration of 
Americans from Boston to the suburbs during those 
years. ^ Nevertheless it must be admitted that the 

' See Publications of the American Statistical Association, June, 
1899, p. 258. 



355] Vitality 49 

native Americans m Boston are increasing by propaga- 
tion very little if at all. It is improbable that this 
low rate of increase of native Americans is applicable 
to any large area of the United States, though in the 
cities of the older part of the country, where competi- 
tion is strong and where there is a large foreign popula- 
tion, the natives are doubtless increasing very slowly. 

x\ sufficient explanation of these phenomena may be 
found in the theory of A. Dumont ' that the growth of 
population varies inversely with " social capillarity." 
And his contention that individual democracies are un- 
favorable to a high birth rate receives confirmation in 
the United States as well as in France. The truth is, 
competition is so keen in our large cities that the main- 
tenance of the American standard of life, including 
social position, is inconsistent with the rearing of a 
large family and sometimes even with marriage itself. 
Moreover, young Americans just starting in life are 
strongly impelled by the competition of foreigners just 
below them to practice every economy in order to retain 
their superior social position. The fear of falling into 
the same class with persons of a different social type 
who themselves may have no social position in this 
country to lose is the strongest incentive to young 
Americans, and results in a practical check upon the 
second generation of the rural stock, which, we have 
reason to believe, was in former years a valuable factor 
in the population of the city. Proof of this may be 
found in the large lodging house class of Americans 
who either never marry or at best marry late in life. 

Decrease in the case of the Negroes is an entirely differ- 
ent phenomenon from that in the case of the native whites. 
A high death rate instead of a low birth rate is causing 

' Arsene Dumont, Depopulation et civilization. 

4 



50 American Economic Association [35^ 

the Negroes to disappear. The faihire of the Negroes 
to maintain their numbers by propagation is probably 
due in part to climatic causes, but it is due also to the 
many subtle influences which uniformly cause an inferior 
race to disappear when in direct contact with a higher 
civilization. A race can make the best use of its higher 
products simply because it has by its own efforts pro- 
duced them. The capability of producing them im- 
plies the capability of using them. At the same time 
every race that survives must necessarily evolve a type 
capable of withstanding the vices attendant upon its 
own civilization, to the extent, at least, of enabling the 
sustaining forces to overbalance the destroying forces. 
Only a comparatively small minority of an uncultured 
race will be in a position to appropriate the best products 
of a higher civilization. On the other hand, the great 
majority are liable to be seduced by those attractions 
which appeal to the lower natures. As a result such a 
race is demoralized by forms of vice which it is not 
adapted to withstand. Thus life in a large city, among 
a different race, has its influence, along with climatic 
causes, in reducing the number of the Negroes. 

The death rate of the Negroes in Boston was even 
larger in 1895 than it was in 1890, and we may there- 
fore safely assume that the decrease is still continuing. 
The birth and death rates have varied somewhat for 
different periods, but for the most part they have never 
shown any tendency towards a natural increase.' The 
Negroes as a race seem to have a smaller power of re- 
sisting disease than do the whites. Professor Warner 
says, " The colored people are weak physically, become 
sick easily, and often die without visible resistance to 

' See HoflFinan, Race traits and tendencies of the AmericaTi Negro, 
p. 36. 



357] Vitality 51 

death." ' Anthropologists tell us how easily death 
comes to primitive peoples. Not infrequently they die 
in a few hours simply from a superstitious fear or even 
from the simple desire to die because tired of life. It 
seems to be the rule that tenacity of life increases with 
the evolution of the race. 

Of all the foreign nationalities the Irish show the 
smallest rate of natural increase. While this is perhaps 
contrary to the general opinion, it is proved both by the 
difference between the birth and death rates and by the 
low rate of increase of the native born of Irish parent- 
age. Here again the cause is not in the low birth rate, 
as is the case with the Americans, but in the exceed- 
ingly high death rate. The explanation, therefore, 
does not lie in the fact that the Irish, being among the 
oldest inhabitants, are now hard pressed by later arrivals 
and as a result are propagating slowly, although this is 
doubtless true of a part of the Irish who have a social 
standing to maintain. As a whole, however, the Irish 
seem to be subjected to a strong process of natural se- 
lection, which is weeding out a large number who are 
physically unable to survive in their environments. 
The difference between the birth and death rates is 
nothing like that of the Negroes, with whom the des- 
troying forces are greater than the reproductive. The 
natural increase of the Irish is actually large, although 
it is smaller than that of any of the other foreign na- 
tionalities. 

The British Americans, Scotch, and English are all 
increasing at about the same rate. The birth rate of 
each is smaller than that of the Irish, but the death rate 
is so much smaller that their natural increase is con- 
siderably larger. This is shown by both methods of 

^ Amos G. Warner, American charities, p. 47. 



52 American Economic AssociatioJi [358 

calculation. The death rate of the English for this 
period was, in fact, smaller than that of any other 
nationality. The death rate for the French is not given, 
but the growth of the native born of French parentage 
shows a rate of increase for the French somewhat greater 
than that for the Irish, but smaller than that for the 
British Americans. The Swedes by the same methods 
of calculation show a much higher rate of increase. 
The Germans, owing to a higher birth rate, are increas- 
ing more rapidly than any of the English-speaking 
foreign born. This high rate, shown by the difference 
between the birth and death rates, is not so well con- 
firmed as in the case of the other nationalities by the 
increase in the native born of foreign parentage as given 
in the last column. This, however, probably indicates 
a migration of the second generation from the city. 

Considering the conditions under which the various 
nationalities live, the superior vitality of the Jews is 
manifest. Although many of them are poor and live 
in the most wretched tenement districts of the city, the 
mortality both of children and of adults is remarkably 
low. Doubtless the long experience of the Jews in the 
ghettoes of European cities has, by selection, helped to 
evolve a race peculiarly adapted both morally and 
physically to withstand the unhealthful life of the slums. 
Another more direct factor workiiig along the same line 
is the influence of their religion in its hygienic and 
moral regulations. The result of these two agents has 
been to form a people remarkably free from that class 
of moral degenerates who breed a weak offspring, 
destined merely to live a miserable life and die a pre- 
mature death. 

Following the same method of examination, it might 
be supposed that the Irish had lived under adverse cir- 



359] Vitality 53 

cumstances long enough to evolve a race more tenacious 
of life than the rate of mortality among them indicates. 
There is, however, an obvious difference in the situation 
of the two peoples, for the great majority of the Irish 
come from rural districts, and consequently, unlike the 
Jews, they are unfitted to withstand the evil influences 
of the cities in which they congregate. Another im- 
portant difference lies in the character of the two 
peoples. An exceptional sense of self-preservation has 
been developed by the Jews, at first probably by close 
contact with unfriendly people, and later through perse- 
cutions by immediate neighbors. The Irish, on the 
other hand, have been more isolated ; their immediate 
struggle has been with nature rather than with men, so 
that they have not been forced to become self-centered. 
Now, however much more agreeable the greater radia- 
tion of the Irish temperament may be, it is certainly less 
effective when the question is one of mere survival. 

That the Italians are unfitted to overcome the evil 
effects of unhealthful surroundings to the same extent 
as the Jews is evident from the greater mortality of their 
children. Lihe the Irish they are a rural class, and suc- 
cumb to the unhealthful conditions of the city in about 
the same degree. The larger birth rate obtained for the 
Italians is probably owing to a smaller number of 
children and aged persons among the immigrants, and 
does not signify a greater natural fecundity than among 
the Jews. 

To recapitulate the evidence as to the relative vitality 
of the various groups, it is noticeable that the most 
recent immigrants have the lowest death rate and the 
highest birth rate, the death rate tending to increase and 
the birth rate to decrease with length of residence. 
This is due in part to the fact that as time passes the 



54 American Economic Association [360 

nationalities contain a larger percentage of older persons. 
Of more significance is the mortality of parent na- 
tivity. From these figures we can trace a direct rela- 
tionship between the mortality of the second generation 
and the standard of living maintained. The Irish and 
the Italians, who live in some of the least sanitary parts 
of the city and maintain a low standard of living, have, 
along with less important nationalities, the highest 
death rates of any of the foreign immigrants. The 
mortality of the second generation of the Irish is con- 
siderably smaller than that of the Italians, and, on the 
whole, the Irish maintain a higher standard of living. 
The Jews, it is true, occupy as crowded quarters as the 
other nationalities, and at the same time have a low 
rate of mortality ; but, with the exception of their 
housing accommodations, they lead a much more health- 
ful life than either the Irish or the Italians, and show 
greater intelligence in the care of their children. From 
the life of the Jews in European countries, it seems 
evident that they have become adapted through selec- 
tion to the crowded life of city slums. In this con- 
nection it is interesting to note the comparative freedom 
of the Jews from consumption. The British Ameri- 
cans, the English, and the Scotch have a medium death 
rate ; and all these nationalities are in somewhat better 
economic conditions than the Irish, and maintain a 
higher standard of living. The Germans, also, though 
ranking with the English in length of residence, have 
the smallest death rate of any of the nationalities, not- 
withstanding the fact that the rate of mortality for 
Germany is much higher than that for the British Isles. 
The high death rate among the Negroes, though due 
partly to climatic causes, seems to be due chiefly to 
inferiority of race. 



361] Vitality 55 

The wide variations in the birth rate among the dif- 
ferent groups is due for the most part to differences in 
ages and in the proportion of married persons among 
the immigrants. Whether it is due entirely to these 
causes or not cannot be absolutely determined. It seems 
probable, however, that the increased hopefulness among 
recent immigrants, if not the mere change of physical 
environment, acts as a stimulus to population. The 
birth rate among the later immigrants will probably be 
decreased as it has among the Irish, Germans, and other 
nationalities which arrived in the early part of the 
century ; and the decrease in rate may mean a decrease 
in actual fecundity, especially if a general advance is 
made in the social scale. The low birth rate amono- the 
Americans seems to be due to the restraint necessitated 
by economic conditions imposed while they are striving 
to maintain their social position in the face of the 
threatening competition of foreign immigrants. 

Finally, as to the question of the origin of the next 
generation, Table X shows that the Negroes will contri- 
bute nothing and that the influence of the old Americans 
will be imperceptible. The rate of natural increase of 
the Jews and Italians is far ahead of that of any other 
nationality ; but, since they are not nearly as numerous 
as most of the other nationalities, their actual increase 
is less. The Irish, as might be expected, have the 
largest numerical increase for the five years ending with 
1895, though they surpass the Russians by a surpris- 
ingly small margin. The Russians, with a population 
in 1895 of only 11,979, ^s against 71,571 Irish, made an 
actual. increase during the previous five years of 3001, 
as against 3133 for the Irish. So the difference in the 
rate of increase for the two nationalities given in Table 
IX just about makes up for a six-fold difference in the 



56 American Eco7ioniic Association [362 

numbers of the two groups. The British Americans, 
who follow the Irish in point of numbers, come next 
with a numerical increase of 2810 for the five years. 
Next to them and ahead of the British come the Italians, 
a comparatively small group, with 1679, With a popu- 
lation only one-ninth as large as that of the Irish, their 
natural increase was more than half as large. Next in 
order are the British, 1138 ; the Germans, 967 ; and the 
Swedes, 531. The Germans, as previously noted, show 
a smaller actual increase than would be obtained from 
the difference between the birth and death rates. 

Of the four racial groups contributing the largest 
numbers to the growth of the population of the city, 
three — the Irish, Russians, and Italians — represent, next 
to the Negroes, perhaps the poorest social conditions ; 
and in the case of the Irish and Italians the growth is 
made at the greatest expense of human life. The 
Russians show the greatest tenacity of life, and they are 
rapidly surpassing other nationalities in natural increase. 
Between 1890 and 1895 the Russians grew 178 per cent 
by immigration and 25 per cent by propagation, and 
doubtless during the next five years they surpassed 
every other group. 



CHAPTER V 

OCCUPATIONS 

Unfortunately statistics of a very recent date are un- 
available, as the occupations of the population of Boston 
are not given by place of birth in the census of 1895. 
The statistics for 1885, however, are still sufficiently 
significant to be worth presenting, and a comparison of 
these with similar figures for 1870 will show the 
changes which have taken place in the character of 
employment along national lines. Before considering 
the various occupations in detail, the general situation 
for tlie total population as given in Table XI should be 
noted. 

Tabi^e XI. — Percentages of persons engaged in Gainful 

Occupations in 1885, by Sex and Place of Birth.* 

Per Cent engaged in Gainful Per Cent of Adult Fe- 

Occupations males who were 

Males Females Housewives 

Total 6S.6j ^95J 47.S0 

Ireland 93-72 Portugal 47-22 Massachusetts 36.50 

Germany 91-63 British Amer. _ 45-I9 British Amer._ 42.00 

Sweden 91-57 Sweden 41.48 Portugal 45-73 

Portugal 91-46 Ireland 34-44 Sweden 49-85 

Scotland 88.43 Other states __ 33.54 Other states,. 50.03 

England 88.08 England 30.05 England 55-8o 

Italy- 87.58 Scotland 28.05 Ireland 56.63 

Russia- 86.61 Massachusetts. 24.11 Scotland 58-93 

British Amer. _ 86.39 Germany 16.S9 Russia 7037 

Other states 85.76 Russia i5-30 Italy 72.53 

Massachusetts. 50.57 Italy 14-17 Germany 74-io 

In 1885 68.67 per cent of the total male population 
and 29.53 P^r ^^y^\. of the female population were engaged 
in gainful occupations, though in this estimate the 
regularity of the employment is not considered. Of 

' Compiled from the Massachusetts state census of 1885. 

^ As the Italians and Russians were not given in 18S5 in detail for 
Boston, the figures for the state are presented in this and the follow- 
ing tables. Boston at that time contained 77 per cent of the Russian 
and nearly 60 per cent of the Italian residents of the state. 



58 American Economic Association [364 

those deducted as having no gainful occupation by far 
the largest number are children at home and at school, 
and, in the case of women, housewives and persons en- 
gaged in housework. The remainder come under the 
head of retired and dependent. Of the separate 
nationalities it will be seen that among the men the 
Irish show the largest percentage of persons employed, 
and the Germans, Swedes, and Portugese each have a 
slightly smaller percentage. The Scotch and English 
come next, and they are followed by the Italians and 
Russians. The British Americans and the Americans 
are last. The small percentage of persons of Massa- 
chusetts birth having an occupation is of course due to 
the fact that nearly all native children of foreign parent- 
age are included in this category. 

Turning now to the female population, a few signifi- 
cant changes are noticeable. A larger percentage of 
British American women than of men are engaged in 
gainful occupations, as are also a relatively large per- 
centage of women from the United States outside of 
Massachusetts. On the other hand, German women 
enter industrial pursuits to a very limited extent, and 
Russian and Italian women in even smaller proportions. 
A large number of women engaged in industrial pur- 
suits ordinarily means the immigration of single persons. 
This fact is brought out by the figures in the third 
column, which shows tlie percentages of housewives of 
the total adult female population in each group. By 
" housewife" is meant any person whose chief occupa- 
tion is to take charge of the domestic affairs of a house- 
hold. It happens that some women who are not married 
are so engaged, and doubtless a considerable number of 
married women have some other occupation, so that the 
figures are not intended to give the proportion of 



365] Occupations 59 

married women among the different ethnic groups, 
though they indicate it approximately.' It will be 
noticed that the figures in this column are roughly in 
inverse order to those in the preceding column, showing 
that a large proportion of married women in a nationality 
goes with a small proportion engaged in gainful occupa- 
tions. 

Natives of Massachusetts appear in their true position 
here, in as much as children are omitted and only adults 
considered. Massachusetts shows the smallest percent- 
age of married women of any group, and the British 
Americans have the next smallest. A slight irregularity 
occurs in the case of the Irish. A larger proportion 
are married than might be expected, considering the 
number engaged in outside occupations. The reason 
is that a smaller proportion of Irish women who are 
unmarried remain at home than is the case with other 
nationalities. For the Portuguese the figures are some- 
what misleading, because a large number of their 
married women are at work and are, therefore, reported 
under their occupation and not as housewives. A larger 
proportion of these than the table would indicate are, 
or have been, married. If we turn back to Table III, 
which shows the ratio of the two sexes, we shall see a 
very close correspondence, with the exception of the 
Irish, between the ratio of the sexes and the number of 
married women. The Italians, Germans, and Russians, 
who show very large percentages of married women, are 
the nationalities which have also the greatest excess of 
males ; while the British Americans, Portuguese, and 
Swedes have an excess of females. 

^ In the Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Labor for 1S88, on 
Working women in large cities, out of the 1406 included in the inves- 
tigation for Boston, 58 women were reported as married. 



6o A')nerican Economic Associatio7i [3^6 

A comparison of nationalities according to groups of 
labor is made in Table XII, which combines all occupa- 
tions under three heads : (i) the professional and mer- 
cantile classes and those in the government employ ; (2) 
artisans and skilled laborers ; (3) unskilled laborers. 
Peddlers have been separated from the merchants and 
dealers and placed with the unskilled as they belong to 
a different social class from the majority of the mer- 
chants. By far the largest number of the first class are 

TABI.E XII.— Occupations by Place of Birth for 1870 and 1885.' 

1885. 

/. Per Cent Prof es- 2. Per Cent Arti- 3. Per Cent Un- 
sional and Mer- sans and Skilled skilled Wo rk- 

cantile Workmen men 

Total 26 Total 34 Total 24 

Other states 36 Sweden 53 Ireland 48 

Massachusetts 34 British America _. 49 Russia 46 

Italy 24 Scotland 49 Portugal 38 

England 20 Portugal 45 Italy 33 

Germany 20 England 41 Germany 28 

Scotland 18 Germany 40 Sweden 28 

British America. __ 17 Other states 36 England 23 

Russia 15 Ireland 31 British America 21 

Ireland 30 Italy 30 Scotland 19 

Portugal 9 Massachusetts 29 Massachusetts 16 

Sweden 8 Russia 22 Other states 14 

1870. 

/. Per Cent Profes- 2. Per Cent Arti- 3. Per Cent Un- 
sional and Mer- sans and Skilled skilled Work- 

cantile Workmen men 

Total 20 Total 27 Total 37 

United States 22 British America __ 41 Ireland 66 

Italy 16 Scotland 39 Sweden 51 

Scotland 15 Germany 38 British America — 36 

England 13 England 33 Italy 35 

Germany 12 Sweden 30 England 34 

British America __ 8 United States 29 Scotland 31 

Ireland 6 Italy 29 Germany 30 

Sweden 3 Ireland 19 United States 21 

native born, and persons from other states take a higher 
rank than those who were born in Massachusetts. This 
is probably because the Massachusetts-born include 

^ Occupations " not given " or " not classified " form quite a large 
percentage of the whole, and for that reason the three classes here 
given do not make 100 per cent. 



367] Occupations 61 

children of foreigners, and so do not reflect the real 
American element. The Italians, English, Germans, 
Scotch, and British Americans have a moderately large 
number in the higher employments ; while the Rus- 
sians, Portuguese, Swedes, and Irish show a very small 
percentage. The Russian and Italian merchants are for 
the most part small dealers. Nearly one-half the Italian 
merchants are fruit dealers, and many of them are mere 
peddlers, though they are not so classed in the census. 
The artisan class is the one in which the British Ameri- 
cans predominate ; it includes nearly one-half of them. 
Though the percentage of Scotch is nearly as large and 
that of the Swedes is even larger, as these groups form a 
much smaller percentage of Boston's population than do 
the British Americans, they do not affect the trades of 
the city in the same degree. 

Though the artisan class as a whole is much larger than 
the first class, it contains a smaller number of Americans. 
This is true, however, of no other nationality ; the English 
and Germans have a larger proportion than the average, 
the Irish and Italians a somewhat smaller one. The 
Russians, as we might expect, have a smaller proportion 
in this class than any other nationality ; but it may 
seem surprising that there is a larger number here than 
in the mercantile class. Doubtless not all the Jews can 
enter their favorite occupations immediately upon their 
arrival. But it should be noted that the majority of 
Jews engaged in dickering were considered by the 
census officials to be peddlers. The fact that the tailor- 
ing trades are included under " skilled workmen " helps 
to account for the number of Jews in this class. 

The column for unskilled labor shows a rough rever- 
sion of the order of the first column, though the Swedes, 
British Americans, and Scotch have a comparatively 



62 Amei'ica7i Economic Association [368 

small percentage in both these classes, for the reason 
that they belong predominantly to the artisan class. 
The Americans have a smaller percentage than any 
other nationality among the unskilled laborers, and the 
Irish have the largest. The Russians are represented 
here to nearly as great an extent as the Irish, and both 
nationalities show a larger percentage in this class of 
work than in both the other classes together, notwith- 
standing the fact that this group as a whole includes a 
smaller number of persons than either of the other 
groups. All the other nationalities except the Italians 
show a larger percentage of skilled than of unskilled 
labor. 

The English and the Germans show a striking simi- 
larity in the proportion of persons entering the different 
grades of occupations, and the British Americans and 
Scotch are also very similar. The fact that two nation- 
alities tend to enter the same grade of work does not 
necessarily imply that they are competing with each 
other. Owing to the minute division of labor a nation- 
ality may enter one particular branch even of unskilled 
labor without competing seriously with persons in an- 
other branch of the same grade of work. 

Let us now turn to Table XIII to obtain an idea of 
particular occupations, though this table is by no means 
sufficiently detailed to show the precise nature of the 
employments. The first class of labor as given in 
Table XII was found to be represented for the most 
part by Americans, and this is especially true of the 
governmental and professional employments. A con- 
siderable number of the Irish are in the employment of 
the city, especially on the police force, and this number 
has doubtless increased in proportion with their longer 
residence here. In professional lines nearly as large a 



369] 



Occupations 



63 



Table XIII. — Detah,ed Occupations by Place of Biuth of 
Males and Females for 1870, of Males for 18S5. 



Natio7iality 



Total No. in 

Gainful 
Occupations 



Laundry 
IVorti 



Year 1S70 /SSj iSyo 18S5 



Fisliermen 



1870 1S85 



Total 102,740 127,852 6S4 



Massachusetts "I ^ , ^n, f 
Other states.. / 54-9^3 \ 
Ireland 31,701 



7,026 
3,106 

979 
Germany 3.165 



British Anier.. 

England 

Scotland 



Italy 
Sweden . 
Portugal 
Russia .. 



302 
562 



50,068 

23,575 

26,907 

9,540 

4,644 

1,522 

4.423 

2,307 

935 

482 

977 



\ 



129 

504 
27 

7 



290 

10 

18 

3 

4 

2 



362 

47 
293 



Nationality 



Car and 
Carriat^c 
Makers 



Ship 
Btiilders 



Agricul- 
turalists 



483 
.61 

113 

332 
10 25 

3 5 
I 

1 2 
II 

2 I 

29 

29 

Bakers and 
Confection- 



Year 1S70 /88s 1870 1885 1870 1885 1870 iS8s 



Total 463 596 

Massachusetts - \ „.:_ f 248 \ 
Other states __ J ^ \ 137 i 

Ireland 88 89 

British Atner.__ 54 94 

England 12 25 

Scotland 6 8 

Germany 21 17 

Italy 2 

Sweden 9 12 

Portugal I 

Russia 6 



Nationality Peddlers 



879 

472 

67 
189 

47 
20 
II 

3 
18 



248 

192 

34 
13 
13 



14 
5 
4 



499 
242 { 

189 
28 
12 

3 

16 

2 

2 



1,135 
3ii\ 
109] 

507 
69 

51 
26 

41 

33 

4 



633 
213 

154 

32 

39 

23 

128 

6 

I 



,171 

309 

129 

179 

82 

46 

80 

236 

53 

3 



Servants 

in 
Families 



14 

Boarding 

and 

Livery 



Water 
Transporta- 
tion 



Year 1870 1885 1870 1885 1870 1885 1870 1885 
Total S47 1,147 14,0267,216 530 1,258 2,106 1,273 



Massachusetts \ ( 

Other states__ J ^"^ t 

Ireland 291 

Bntish-Amer 27 

England 50 



248 1 
71 i 
258 7,595 



4,041 



Scotland 

Germany 

Italy ___' 

Sweden 

Portugal 

Russia 



2 
58 
10 

I 



18 

40 

3 

91 



282 



1,546 

343 

127 

179 

14 

55 



f 229 
\246 

472 
77 
94 
28 

13 



}.3,{ 



307 

21 

9 
6 



305 \ 
199/ 
614 

77 

26 

8 

15 



15 
4 



880 

306 

168 

232 

39 

75 

21 

165 



372 

262 

168 

192 

58 

22 

14 

50 
37 



64 



Avierican Economic Association 



[370 



Nationality 



Build- 
ing 
Trades 



Cabinet and 
Printers Furniture 
Makers 



Bankers, 
Tailors Brokers, 
Real est., etc. 



Year 1S70 18S5 1870 1883 1870 1885 1870 1885 1870 ih 



Total _ 
Mass. 
Other sts 

Ireland 

Brit. Amer. 

England 

Scotland _ 
Germany.. 

Italy 

Sweden __ 

Portugal 

Russia 



975 2,066 1,568 2,216 1,394 2,267 6,074 2,292 644 2,315 
34{'':;^}794{?g}3,c94{«^}6..{''|4^ 



:}4S3{-'X^} 



284 

85 
76 
29 

6 

7 
I 



397 

168 

122 

49 

14 



211 

119 

53 

14 

39 



160 

203 

99 

32 

53 

II 
I 



163 

113 
48 
18 

151 
7 

50 



206 
231 
117 
32 
191 

47 
90 

75 
4 



1,723 

675 

154 

59 

209 

10 

16 



619 

112 

107 

46 

294 
61 

42 ... 

8 ... 

113 ... 



124 
84 
82 
16 
41 

3 
I 



Nationality Painters 



Personal , 

Service Sejs and 



Messen- Board- Masons and 

ing atid Stone- 
Porters Lodgings workers 



Year 1870 1885 1870 1885 1885 1870 1885 1870 1883 



Total 1,983 

Mass. 

Other sts._ 

Ireland 

Brit. Amer. 
England __ 

Scotland 

Germany _ 

Italy 

Sweden 

Portugal 

Russia 



2,366 662 2,819 2,648 1,461 2,708 2,026 



360 

112 
98 
23 

93 
6 



412J 
287 
267 
120 

41: 
78 
26 
45 
5 



47 
33 
16 

I 
70 
26 

3 



730 
674 
244 
145 
39 
200 

165 
30 
62 

7 



358 

141 

76 

17 

13 

II 
2 



273 
67 
47 
10 

137 
3 
9 



461 
179 

145 
26 

150 
38 
25 
12 

9 



814 
90 

63 
20 

59 

10 

I 



3,022 

629 

342 

1,470 

130 

140 

52 

70 

227 

II 

3 
50 



City Railroad 

Natiottality Government Transporta- Transporta- Professional 

tion lion 

Year 1870 1885 1870 18S5 1870 1883 1870 iSSj 

Total 1,520 3,847 617 3,854 800 3,918 2,338 4,266 

n.T---r-\ 1.282I ^'9^41 5491^.7831 648^ ^'^37 U^o^l ^'^55 

Other sts. _ J ' \ 951 f ^^^ \ 980/ ^ 1.1,029/ ' ^\ 1,637 

Ireland 153 579 37 640 109 1,036 109 141 

British Amer. 12 119 21 309 22 192 59 158 

England 17 72 2 74 10 89 34 169 

Scotland 15 14 2 12 6 30 11 33 

Germany 36 58 6 17 2 22 54 212 

Italy 13 98 

Sweden 14 2 2 19 3 15 

Portugal 4 2 I 7 

Russia 4 



37 1 ] Occupations 65 

Carpenters Metal Merchants 

Nationality Teamsters and Wood jjr , and 

Workers Workers ^^^^^^^ 

Year 1S70 /8Ss 1870 1885 1870 18S5 1S70 1885 

Total 2,744 4,786 4,633 5,887 3,862 6,754 7,534 8,526 

Sir s;;:: } -.^^^ { ''\Z } ^.54= { \f^V'*^ { \f^ } j.^m { \f, 

Ireland 813 1,129 77i 795 913 i,434 1,011 1,314 

British Amer. 131 428 974 1,653 344 694 161 341 

England 52 91 118 232 226 423 164 51 

Scotland 8 21 55 122 198 168 40 61 

Germany 40 56 no 168 156 247 204 425 

Italy 15 3 38 423 61 28 415 

Sweden i 5 18 59 136 10 16 

Portugal 3 26 15 26 

Russia II 98 

.r ,. ,., Mantifacturing , , Clerks Bookkeep- 

Nationality Emtlovees Laborers ers, Stenogra- 

^ -^ phers, Salesmen 

Year 1S70 /8Sj /870 /88s 1870 1885 

Total 4,101 8,866 13,332 11,027 8,615 14,489 

Massachusetts . -I gf 2,85o\ gf 1,890 "I f 8,525 

Other states .__ / ^''9^\ i,i36j ^'"^i 541/ ^,473 -j^ 3357 

Ireland 1,209 2,180 4,920 7,221 385 647 

British Amer.__ 264 660 386 458 368 918 

England 132 426 236 256 174 381 

Scotland 45 125 79 59 82 156 

Germany 346 872 251 143 86 175 

Italy I 205 59 512 5 48 

Sweden 17 134 45 51 6 26 

Portugal 39 72 

Russia 82 39 7 

number of Americans — and this means, of course, a 
much larger proportion — come^ from outside of Massa- 
chusetts as from within it. The larger proportion of 
the physicians, clergymen, and preachers of the city 
are natives of states other than Massachusetts. The 
only professional line in which foreigners are strong is 
that of music. More of Boston's musicians are foreig-n 
born than native born. Germany furnishes the greater 
number, though the majority of the Italian professional 
men are musicians. Italian street musicians, to be sure, 
do not represent a high grade of professional life, but 
there is a goodly number of high grade musicians and 
music teachers among the Italians. 

5 



66 American Economic Association [37 2 

A somewhat different situation holds with the com- 
mercial classes. Bankers and brokers, like the classes 
just considered, are predominantly American. Among 
the foreign born only the English show a percentage 
in this line above the average. In the large class of 
clerks, bookkeepers, and salesmen, however, the British 
Americans take a prominent part, though the Americans 
and especially natives of Massachusetts are the best 
represented in proportion to their total numbers. In 
the class of merchants and dealers, however, natives of 
]\Iassachusetts are considerably below the average. 
Americans born outside of Massachusetts play a much 
larger part in the mercantile life of the city in propor- 
tion to their numbers than do natives of Massachusetts. 
The Jewish propensity for trade shows itself in the large 
numbers of Germans and Russians in this class. The 
Italians, however, go far beyond the Jews in the number 
of small dealers and tradesmen, since more than half 
are fruit dealers. The Italians cannot show a very 
large proportion of dealers at the present time, for the 
merchant class is mostly Genoese, and the present im- 
migrants are preponderantly Southern Italians. 

One of the most important classes of skilled work- 
men is that of carpenters and woodworkers of various 
kinds. More British Americans in Boston belong to 
the carpenters' trade than to any other single occupa- 
tion, and a larger number of Boston's carpenters come 
from British America than from any other country, ex- 
cept from the United States as a whole. Besides the 
British Americans, the Scotch, English, and Swedes 
have a larger number than the average in these trades. 
A comparatively small number of skilled workmen are 
to be found among the Irish. Only among the masons 
and the stone workers, railroad employees, and tailors 



373] Occupations 67 

do they show large proportions. In the tailoring trade 
the Americans are poorly represented, while a con- 
siderable number of foreign nationalities have entered 
it. The Jews, both Russian and German, are, however, 
most noticeably prominent. The more skilled among 
the Italians are masons and stone workers, barbers, and 
bakers. Many Germans, also, are barbers and bakers, 
and a few skilled workers among the Portuguese are 
barbers and woodworkers. 

We have already seen that the majority of Irish are 
unskilled. It appears, furthermore, from Table XIII 
that the Irish predominate in every branch of unskilled 
labor excepting water transportation. The British 
Americans, English, Scotch, and Swedes all enter this 
line of work. The Portuguese follow the water to a 
great extent, both as sailors and fishermen, though of 
late years they have been moving to suburban towns so 
that the proportion of Boston residents in this line of 
work is smaller than it was. The only class of un- 
skilled labor in which the Americans enter very largely 
is that of teaming. Here the Americans and British 
Americans compete with the Irish. Much the same 
thing is true of other forms of city transportation, 
though these other forms present a higher grade of 
labor, as they include street car employees. The Rus- 
sians take the lead in peddling, without serious opposi- 
tion from other nationalities ; although there were less 
than 1000 Russians in industrial pursuits, 282 peddlers 
out of 1 1 77 were of that nationality. In 1885 the Irish 
and Germans also had more than their proportionate 
number of peddlers, but since then the Jews, Syrians, 
and Greeks have pretty well monopolized the business. 
Although there is a goodly number of English coach- 
men, the Irish supply most of the house servants and 



68 Aniericayi Econoinic Association [374 

coachmen, included under "servants in families." In 
manufacturing establishments American men are poorly 
represented, although, as we shall see later on, this is 
not the case with the women. With the possible excep- 
tion of the British Americans, all foreign groups, 
especially the Italians and Swedes, are well represented 
in factory employment. Unskilled laborers are mostly 
Irish and Italian. 

Turning now to the occupations of the women, the 
relative proportions of each nationality found in the 
three general classes of occupations, in so far as they 
were classified in the census returns, are presented in 
Table XIV. Table XI showed that less than 30 per 

Table XIV.— Occupations of Females in 1895 by 

Place of Birth. ^ 
Per Cent 
Merca7itile and Per Cent Per Cent 

Professional Skilled Unskilled 

Total 15 Total 26 Total 3i 

Italy 23 Portugal 75 Sweden 68 

Other states 20 British America 34 Ireland 63 

Massachusetts 20 Other states 31 Germany 50 

Germany 15 England 28 Scotland 48 

England 13 Scotland 27 British America ___ 45 

Scotland 13 Massachusetts 25 England 36 

British America ___ 9 Russia 25 Russia 25 

Ireland 6 Sweden 21 Massachusetts 21 

Russia 4 Germany 19 Italy 20 

Sweden 4 Ireland 19 Other states 16 

Portugal I Italy 15 Portugal 9 

cent of all the women were engaged in gainful occupa- 
tions, and that the percentage among the Germans, 
Russians, and Italians was still smaller. The smallest 
number — 15 per cent — were following professional and 
mercantile pursuits. The order of nationalities for this 
class is much the same for the women as for the men, 
the chief difference being that the large number of 
Italian female merchants brings them to the front. 
The presence of domestic servants in the unskilled class 
' Compiled from the Massachusetts state census. 



375] Occupatio7is 69 

makes this the largest of the three. In this class the 
Swedes, Irish, Germans, Scotch, and British Americans 
take the lead. In the class of skilled laborers, numerous 
minor differences in the order for men and women oc- 
cur ; but none of them are very significant. 

The minor changes may be seen best by turning to 
the occupations in detail in Table XV. The majority 
of those in government employment are engaged as 
nurses in public institutions, and hence they may be 
considered with the class of " nurses and hospital em- 
ployees." Americans from outside of Massachusetts, 
British Americans, and Scotch enter these occupations 
in relatively large proportions. As clerks and sales- 

Table XV.— Detaii^ed Occupations by Pi^ace of Birth, 
Femai^es, 1885. 

,, ,. .. Total m p-....^,,j rn7,'t^„ Compos J- Merchants 

Nationality Gainful ^''fjf ^i'/JJ' tors and and 

OccupaVtis '^"^^ '"^"^ Printers Dealers 

Total 60,306 sji ^23 516 557 

Massachusetts 24,474 275 141 341 103 

Other states, _ 9,770 22 loi 98 61 

Ireland 13.444 29 92 10 247 

British Amer. 7,560 24 62 39 37 

England 1,480 12 8 12 29 

Scotland 413 4 6 4 

Germany 673 4 6 21 

Sweden 448 i 

Portugal 281 2 __"" 

Italy 192 31 

Russia 1X2 c 

r7>„... Nurses & Clerks & . ^ , 

Nationality ^fj"/' Hospital Book- f'^""" ^^^^^- 

keepe^s Employees keepers '^''''''' ^^'«^« 

Total go3 1,342 2,048 2,139 2,185 

Massachusetts 266 350 i,397 246 1,427 

Other states _. 247 338 388 285 '368 

Ireland 1_. 198 263 41 1,294 95 

British Amer. _ 119 225 138 172 167 

England 24 50 27 41 53 

Scotland 7 23 5 23 13 

Germany 6 21 10 23 12 

Sweden 8 9 2 24 3 

Portugal I 4 8 

Italy 2 5 

Russia 



•JO American Economic Association [376 

„ ,. .f r Clothing 
,r ,. r, Profes- Boarding Mamifac- ^^^^^^^^ Domestic 
Nationality • / ^ and tnring Milliners, Servants 

Lodging Employees^^^^^^^^,^;^ 

Total 2,647 3,694 3,787 10,757 14,425 

Massachusetts 1,544 915 2,524 4,657 2,119 

Other states __ 751 7S6 281 1,981 1,029 

Ireland loi 1,122 410 1,212 6,761 

British Amer. _ 93 573 248 1,823 2,959 

England 29 107 140 280 342 

Scotland 3 44 26 60 146 

Germany 35 35 39 §4 278 

Sweden 6 18 11 68 271 

Portugal 2 3 207 21 

Italy 22 27 16 

Russia 7 33 21 

women x\mericans only are well represented. In the 
class of small dealers, however, only a small proportion 
of Americans is to be found, the Irish, Jews, and Italians 
being the best represented. In the more skilled lines 
of work, compositors and printers are almost exclusively 
American. The boarding and lodging house keepers 
are pretty well divided up, though Americans from rural 
districts, Irish, and British Americans are especially 
numerous. Immigrants from northern New England and 
from British America are becoming to a greater extent 
proprietors of the middle class lodging houses. In the 
department of makers of clothing and seamstresses, the 
large number of Portuguese is especially noticeable. 
Indeed, the majority of all Portuguese women are oc- 
cupied in this line of work. Nearly all of them, how- 
ever, are " pant makers," and are about the least skilled 
and poorest paid of all needlewomen. Americans from 
outside of Massachussetts, British Americans, English, 
and Russians also enter one department or another of 
this work. The Italians and Russians are makers of 
clothing of much the same grade as the Portugese, 
while the Americans and British Americans are dress- 
makers and seamstresses of a more skilled type. 



377] Occupations 71 

In unskilled lines of work the laundresses are mostly 
Irish. The Irish, Germans, and Swedes go into domestic 
service to a great extent, and the British Americans very 
commonly work in restaurants. On the other hand, 
natives of Massachusetts enter factories to a greater ex- 
tent than do any of the other nationalities. The prefer- 
ence of American girls for the freer life in manufactur- 
ing establishments, in place of better paid domestic 
service, is well known. 

A study of the occupations for 1870 will now show 
the more important changes which have taken place in 
the various occupations, and it will show also the in- 
creasing competition of different nationalities in the 
same lines of work. Of course the most important 
nationalities enter all the principal occupations to some 
extent, and to this extent competition is general. Still, 
as we have seen, there are national tendencies towards 
certain occupations ; and the point of interest is the ex- 
tent to which nationalities compete in their special lines 
of work. As the occupations for 1870 in Table XII are 
not given by sex, the table includes both sexes. 

Certain general changes in industrial development 
between 1870 and 1895 may be first noted. The total 
number of persons engaged in gainful occupations rose 
from 41 per cent of the total population in 1870 to 48.2 
per cent in 1885, ^^^^ to 48.5 per cent in 1895. Prob- 
ably increasing immigration, in bringing in a larger pro- 
portion of adults, would have the effect of increasing the 
total working population ; but another influence would 
come from the inceasing number of women entering in- 
dustrial pursuits. Indeed, the increasing number of 
workers between 1885 and 1895 was wholly due to the 
growth of female labor. The proportion of women in 
gainful occupations rose from 29.57 P^^ cent in 1885 to 



72 American Economic Association [378 

30.12 per cent in 1895, and the proportion of men de- 
creased slightly — from 68.67 P^^ ^^"t to 68.18 per cent 
for the same period. Furthermore, labor in 1885 was 
of a distinctively higher grade than it was in 1870. 
The professional and mercantile class increased from 20 
to 23 per cent, and artisans and skilled laborers from 27 
to 30 per cent, while unskilled laborers decreased from 
TfJ to 27 per cent. The relative numbers of the different 
nationalities in the three grades of labor did not change 
very much in the fifteen years.' The position of the 
nationalities in professional and skilled lines of work 
remained substantially the same except that a larger 
proportion of skilled laborers came from Sweden than 
was formerly the case, and in unskilled work Germany 
showed a relatively larger number in 1885. 

Some interesting points of particular nationali- 
ties in specified occupations may be noted from the fig- 
ures for the periods given in Table XIII. In govern- 
ment employment the Americans had a greater monopoly 
in 1870 than in 1885. In professional lines the Amer- 
icans have held first place all along, and there is compara- 
tively little serious competition from other nationalities. 
German professional men increased rapidly between 1870 
and 1885, but their work, as well as that of most foreign 
born professional men, is supplementary rather than 
competitive. In 1870 the competition of foreign mer- 
chants and dealers was not serious. Most of them were 
small dealers, either with a local trade or else with one 
of a different kind from that of the ordinary stores. 
More recently, however, British Americans and English 
have come into competition with Americans, especially 
with the young men from rural districts, for such posi- 
tions as those of clerks and salesmen. As merchants 

» See Table XII. 



379] Occupations 73 

and dealers, also, natives of Massachusetts were not pro- 
portionately represented even in 1885. I'he Jews at 
first entered a line of trade which was before unde- 
veloped ; many performed a peculiar service in saving 
and redistributing goods which in the natural course of 
American extravagance would have been wasted. But 
as the Jews progressed and entered the more customary 
lines of trade, their competition with American merchants 
became more and more severe. The Italian fruit and 
other small dealers built up a trade of their own, but 
they are now being hard pressed by some of the smaller 
nationalities like the Armenians and the Greeks. 

The most extensive competition among the nation- 
alities seems to be among skilled artisans. In a number 
of occupations of this class, especially in the case of 
carpenters and other woodworkers, the British Ameri- 
cans, Scotch, English, and Swedes are in direct com- 
petition. In 1870 the Americans were well represented 
in nearly all these trades, but the increased demand for 
this kind of labor has been met by the foreign nation- 
alities ; the Americans have uniformly lost ground in the 
struggle, while the British Americans have been the 
chief gainers. These are the occupations which attract 
artisans from British America, England, and Scotland 
for the season, and consequently the retirement of the 
Americans in not very surprising. The competition of 
the British Americans in the building trades has had 
a serious effect upon the native workman. The British 
Americans who come to Boston for the season have no 
permanent interest in the city, and they are affected less 
than permanent residents by the American cost of living. 
They do not join trade unions to the same extent as do 
the permanent residents, and they are entirely willing 
to cut wages. The trade union standard for carpenters' 



74 American Economic Association [380 

wages is $2.50, but British Americans often work for 
less than ^2.00, as it is for their temporary advantage to 
work for what they can get. The resnlt is that the 
carpenters' union in Boston is unable to raise its stand- 
ard wage to that which exists outside the sphere of the 
British American invasion. In southern New York and 
in Pennsylvania carpenters' wages are $3.00 to $3.75 
per day. The British Americans, however, control 
wages here less than they otherwise would, because they 
are not the most efficient workmen. English and Scotch 
artisans do not have the same effect upon wages as 
British Americans, because nearly all of them belong to 
unions in their native countries, and they are also among 
the most skilled workmen in their trades. 

The evolution of the painters' and metal workers' 
trades has been mucht he same as that of the carpenters'. 
As compositors and printers the Americans have held 
their own, but it is largely due to the women engaged 
in this line of work. The competition of British Ameri- 
cans, English, and Scotch is on the increase even here. 
Italian, Russian, and Portuguese artisans frequently sup- 
ply a more local demand, and consequently compete only 
indirectly with other nationalities. 

In unskilled occupations Americans are less in evi- 
dence, in nearly every case the Irish holding first place, 
competing with the English, the Scotch, or some of the 
more recently immigrating nationalities. In 1870, 
however, Americans had more of a monopoly on the 
teaming business than they do at present, and they were 
more largely engaged in agricultural labor. Competition 
among newsboys has been strong in recent years. Irish 
boys, who formerly sold papers in good-natured rivalry 
in all parts of the city, have now been driven into the 
Irish districts by the fierce competition of Jewish boys, 



381] Occupatioyis 75 

who make the work all business. Even in unskilled 
employments there is often a division of labor which 
makes competition less severe than it otherwise would 
be. In unskilled labor, for example, the Italians are 
supplanting the Irish to a great extent ; but the Italians 
are more generally employed in contract work, — work 
which may be done under the direction of a " boss," — 
while labor which is more individualized as well as all 
city labor is performed by the Irish. With the excep- 
tion of professional lines and of some of the commer- 
cial branches, therefore, there are now few occupations 
in which Americans hold undisputed supremacy. 

It is advantageous also to consider the question of 
labor with reference to classified occupations. For such 
a classification the figures for place of birth may be ob- 
tained for 1870 and 1875, and figures for the totals for 
1880 and 1895. A slight difference in classification for 
these periods should be noted. In 1870 and 1880 the 
whole industrial population was definitely classified in 
one way or another, and consequently the totals foot up 
to 100 per cent. In 1885 and in 1895 some were "not 
given" or " not classified," so that the population classi- 
fied is less than 100 per cent of the industrial popula- 
tion. Hence in comparing the different periods it must 
be remembered that the percentage in each class in 
1885 and 1895 should be raised a little to make them 
comparable with the percentages for 1870 and 1880. 
The figures for 1870 also do not include Brighton, West 
Roxbury, or Charlestown ; and these districts might 
somewhat alter the relative importance of the classes. 
It will be seen from the figures that the relative number 
of persons engaged in manufacturing enterprises has 
so decreased that in 1895 less than one-third of the in- 



76 A->nerica7i Economic Associatio7i [382 

dustrial population, or only fifteen per cent of the total 
population, was engaged in production. During the 
same time the number of persons engaged in trade and 
transportation so increased that 28.7 per cent of the 
working population were engaged in the process of 
distribution. This is nearly as large a number as those 
engaged in production, and shows to what extent Bos- 
ton is a trading center for the products of New England. 
In the state as a whole only about two-fifths as many 
persons were engaged in trade and transportation as in 
production. The increase in the branch of distribution, 
however, has been in the line of transportation rather 
than that of trade. Persons engaged in railway and 
city transportation have shown a very marked increase 
since 1870 and also since 1885. Water transportation 
only has shown no gain. 

Centralization in trade is shown by the fact that mer- 
chants and dealers have increased less rapidly than the 
total population, notwithstanding the increase in the 
number of Italian and Jewish dealers, while the number 
of clerks and salesmen has increased more rapidly. 
The small class of bankers, agents, and brokers has in- 
creased even more rapidly than clerks and salesmen. 
Unskilled laborers have been classed by themselves, for 
at one time they may be engaged in production and at 
another in transportation or in personal service. In 1885 
this class appeared particularly small because many un- 
skilled laborers were placed in the class in which they 
happened to be at the time. However, with the de- 
crease in Irish immigration, the relative importance of 
this class has diminished. As unskilled laborers find 
employment, they become somewhat specialized. 

These three classes just considered are for the most 
part engaged in production and distribution, but at least 



383] Ocaipations 77 

one-fourth of the total number engaged in gainful occu- 
pations is not so included. These are engaged in serv- 
ing individuals or the collective body, and their num- 
bers have been slowly increasing. The government 
has demanded an increasing number of workers in pro- 
portion to the size of the aggregate, until in 1895 2.8 
per cent of the total working population was in govern- 
mental employ. A similar increase is noticeable in pro- 
fessional lines. In 1870 this class included 2.2 per 
cent, and in 1895 4-^ P^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ total number en- 
gaged in gainful pursuits. Spencer considers the 
function of the professional classes to be the augmenta- 
tion of life, and an increase in the number of profes- 
sional men ought certainly to make life richer because 
of increased intellectual activities. There is always the 
danger, however, that excessive development in any 
non-productive line will result in a drain on the social 
system. Since 1885 an increase relatively larger than 
that of the total population has taken place in every 
branch of professional life ; but the gain has been es- 
pecially marked in amusements, in literature, and in 
science. Artists, lawyers, musicians, and teachers have 
increased least rapidly. The value of those departments 
which have developed most rapidly depends very largely, 
of course, on the quality of the work. On the whole, 
it must be admitted, they do not represent the highest 
in professional life. 

The largest class of workers not engaged directly in 
production or distribution is that of personal and 
domestic service. As division of labor in the industrial 
world extends and as wealth increases, it is to be ex- 
pected that there will be a demand for a larger propor- 
tion of the industrial population to minister to the needs 
of the wealthy classes. In domestic service this increase 



78 American Economic Association [384 

has not taken place, but in every other form of personal 
service there has been a marked increase since 1870. A 
number of explanations may be given for the decreased 
proportion of domestic servants. First, the proportion 
of domestic servants in Charlestown is smaller than that 
in the rest of the city, and its annexation, therefore, 
would tend to lower the average somewhat. Secondly, 
the number of families, or at least the number of fami- 
lies keeping house, has probably diminished relatively 
in that part of the population which hires servants. 
This cannot be shown statistically except for the fact 
that the boarding and lodging facilities have grown 
more rapidly than the population. If fewer marriages 
actually take place among the well-to-do, it cuts off the 
demand for domestic servants both by lessening the 
number of independent homes and also by leaving a 
larger number of women to help in the house work in 
the homes of their parents. Thirdly, in 1870, when the 
Irish were immigrating so rapidly, it is probable that 
the supply of servants was much greater in proportion 
to the demand than at present. For some reason the 
number of domestic servants seems to have been partic- 
ularly large in 1870. This class engaged in domestic 
and personal service, forming in 1895 18.8 per cent 
of all those engaged in gainful occupations, is cer- 
tainly large enough to have an influence on the distribu- 
tion of wealth. The tendency of the various nationali- 
ties to enter these five classes of occupations may be seen 
from the figures for 1870 and 1885. 

In productive enterprises the Portuguese head the list 
because of the large number of Portuguese seamstresses. 
The Germans, Swedes, and Scotch also show large per- 
centages in this class, but the Americans and Irish have 
the smallest numbers. The largest gains in this line of 



385] Occupations 79 

work were made by the Swedes and the Italians. In the 
department of trade and transportation, the large num- 
ber of Jewish dealers brings the Russians to the head of 
the list. The Americans, both the natives of Massa- 
chusetts and of other states, come next, and this is the 
real line of American predominance. The Swedes and 
the Portuguese, who were well represented in productive 
pursuits, have the fewest representatives of all nationali- 
ties in trade and transportation. The Irish are repre- 
sented only slightly in this line as well as in that of pro- 
duction. The proportion of Russians, Germans, British 
Americans, and Irish in the line of trade and transporta- 
tion has increased somewhat since 1870; all other 
nationalities, including the Americans, are .decreasing. 
Nearly all unskilled laborers are Italians or Irish, the 
proportion of Italians increasing and the Irish decreas- 
ing. All other nationalities have comparatively few 
representatives in this line, the iVmericans having the 
fewest of all. Governmental and professional employ- 
ments have already been considered, though Table XVI 
gives a convenient method of comparison by percent- 
ages. In personal and domestic service the Irish and 
the Swedes have the largest proportion, the Swedes 
having increased very rapidly since 1870. The British 
Americans are also well represented, and the proportion 
of the Scotch is increasing. The Russians, natives of 
Massachusetts, and the Italians enter this line of work 
only to a limited extent. The large percentage of 
Americans from " other states " engaged in personal 
service is due to the influence of the Negro element. 

The results of the statistics on occupations may now 
be briefly summarized. A comparatively small propor- 
tion of the native born are engaged in gainful occupa- 
tions. Those who are so engaged tend to enter govern- 



8o 



American Economic Association 



[386 



Table XVI. — Ci^assified Occupations by Place of Birth, 

1870 AND 1885. 



Govern- 
ment 



(1870) 

Personal Trade 

Profes- and and Produc- 

sional Domestic Transpor- tion 

Service tation 



Laborers 



Total 

U. S. 

Scot. 

Ger. 

Eng. 

Ire. 



J-5 
2.3 
1.5 
I.I 

• 5 
•5 



Brit. A. .2 



Italy 
U. S. 
Ger. 
Scot. 
Eng. 
Br. A. 
Swed. 
Ire. 



Total 

O.Sts. 

Mass. 

Ire. 

Eng. 

Ger 

B.A. 

Scot. 

Swed. 

Port. 

Rus. 



2.2 

3.1 O.Sts. 
2.8 Ger. 
1.6 Mass. 
1.3 Italy 

1.2 Eng. 
i.o Scot, 
i.o Swed. 
i.o B. A. 
0.5 Port. 
0.4 Ire. 

Rus. 



2.2 

4.3 Ire. 
3-5 B. A. 
1.7 Italy 
1. 1 Eng. 
1.0 Ger. 

.8 U. S. 

.5 Swed. 

.3 Scot. 



3.6 _____ 

7.1 Ire. 

4.8 Swed. 

4.3 B. A. 

3.9 Scot. 

3.2 Eng. 
1.8 O.Sts. 
1.5 Ger. 

1.4 Port. 
I.I Italy 
0.6 Mass. 

Rus. 



19.5 

28.1 U. S. 
25.8 Swed. 
21.8 Eng. 

16.6 Italy 

16.2 Scot. 

14.3 Ger. 
13.8 B. A. 
13.5 Ire. 

(1885) 
ij.o 

29.4 Rus. 
29.0 Mass. 
27.0 O.Sts. 

17.8 Italy 

15.9 Eng. 

14.7 Scot. 

14.5 Ger. 
14.0 B. A. 

8.8 Ire. 
8.6 Port. 
3.4 Swed. 



25.3 

34.9 Ger. 
34.0 Scot. 
24.0 B. A. 
22.5 Eng. 
20. o Swed 
16.7 U. S. 

14.0 Italy 

1 2. 1 Ire. 



3^-4 — - 
56.2 Ire. 
55.6 Italy 
53 6 Scot. 
50.1 Swed. 
43.6 Ger. 
40.6 Eng. 
30.8 B. A. 
27.6 U. S. 



25-4 
39 7 
32.2 
30.8 
20.9 
20.5 
18.7 
17.6 
17-3 

15-2 

10.2 
9-9 



Port. 

Ger. 

Swed. 

Scot. 

B. A. 

Eng. 

Rus. 

Italy 

Mass. 

O.Sts. 

Ire. 



2g.2 

54-4 
47.6 

46.5 
45-5 
390 
38.8 
32.2 
31-4 
27-3 
24.7 
25.6 



Italy 

Ire. 

Port. 

Eng. 

Swed. 

Rus. 

Scot. 

Ger. 

B. A. 

Mass. 

O.Sts, 



i2.g 

31-3 

19-5 

8.1 

8.0 

7-9 
7.6 

5-5 
4.1 



5-8 
20.5 
17.9 

9-4 
4.2 

3-7 
3-6 
3-0 
2.8 
2.6 

2.5 
1.6 



mental, professional, or mercantile pursuits, though a 
considerable number of Americans from rural districts 
belong to the artisan class. The incoming of foreigners 
has to a certain extent forced Americans from the lower 
into the higher grades of labor. On the other hand, the 
greatly increased division of labor having been coinci- 
dent with immigration, immigrants have fitted into 
positions in the industrial world which did not before 
exist for American laborers. Increasing opportunities 
for labor in the industrial centers have been one of the 
causes of the migration of rural Americans to the cities. 
There are, however, many reasons for believing that 
migration to the large centers has now passed beyond 
the needs of normal industrial development. The keen- 
ness of competition in mercantile pursuits seems to be 



387] Occupations 81 

one of the chief reasons for the faihire of Americans to 
keep up their numbers by propagation. 

The Irish from the first have been engaged very 
largely in unskilled labor and in domestic and personal 
service. The displacement of the Irish from these oc- 
cupations by the incoming of other nationalities, how- 
ever, has been somewhat more marked than in the case 
of the Americans. The immigration of the Italians 
especially has forced the Irish to pass from unskilled to 
more skilled employments ; and in wholly unskilled 
work a differentiation has taken place and the more 
general work which may be done by " gangs " of work- 
men is performed by the Italians or, to some extent, 
by the Armenians and the Jews. 

From England and Scotland we get skilled workmen 
of a high grade. This is principally true of the build- 
ing trade, where they have held their place against com- 
petition from other immigrants. The British Ameri- 
cans enter much the same grade of occupations as the 
English and the Scotch, though a somewhat smaller 
percentage enter professional and commercial pursuits, 
and their skilled laborers are somewhat less efficient 
than those from the British Isles. A much larger pro- 
portion of women workers come from British America 
than from most other countries, and their work is largely 
in competition with that of American women. The tem- 
porary character of much of the immigration from 
British America, a condition which permits the immi- 
grants to underbid permanent Boston residents, makes 
the competition much more serious and raises doubts as 
to the industrial value of the extensive immigration 
from that country. 

The Swedes in point of numbers are comparatively 

6 



82 American Economic Association [388 

unimportant, A larger percentage of them than of any 
other nationality, however, belong to the artisan class. 
And although they are more permanent residents than 
the British Americans, their influence on competition 
is much the same. 

The number of Germans in professional lines has in- 
creased, but in other lines the proportion of workers has 
changed comparatively little. Though the proportion 
of Germans in the different grades of labor is much the 
same as that of the English, they compete with English- 
speaking nationalities to a comparatively small extent. 
Few German women enter industrial life. 

The Russian Jews are to a very large extent engaged 
in trade and in the manufacture of clothing, yet there 
are many more Jewish artisans and unskilled laborers 
than is commonly supposed. The competition of Jews 
is strong, whatever be their occupation, but the very 
severity of competition in their case leads them to see 
the advantages of combination. Consequently they are 
earnest advocates of socialism, and some of the trade 
unions are composed almost wholly of Jews. 

With the Italians a division of occupations may be 
made according to the division of the race into northern 
and southern Italians. The northern Italians belong 
particularly to the professional and the mercantile classes, 
and the,, southern Italians are the unskilled laborers. 
Unskilled Italian laborers who work under the 
padrone system receive smaller wages than Irish 
laborers, and even then the majority are unemployed 
for the greater part of the year. Considering here only 
the economic^conditions, it may be said that the present 
immigration of southern Italians brings a large super- 
fluous population of hot-headed men who are fit only 
for unskilled labor, and the presence of these men has 



389] Occupations 83 

reacted on the Irish, making their employment less 
steady/ 

The few Portuguese in the city affect the skilled 
trades comparatively little. There are many Portuguese 
barbers, a few artisans, and among the women a large 
number of seamstresses. The work of the Portuguese 
is not of a very high grade, and they do not seriously 
compete with other nationalities. 

It may be said, therefore, that the Americans, British 

Americans, English, Scotch, and Swedes enter much 

the same lines of employment. The rural Americans, 

more particularly those from northern New England, 

the British Americans, and the Swedes do not tend to 

form combinations, while artisans from the British Isles 

are the mainstay of the trade unions. The occupations 

of the Irish do not follow directly those of the above 

mentioned nationalities, but are of a rougher sort. The 

Italians tend to follow the occupations of the Irish. 

The Germans show about the same grade of skill as 

the English-speaking nationalities, though they differ 

from them considerably in detailed occupations. The 

Russians, on the other hand, have a narrower range of 

labor than most nationalities. 

^ It should be noted that some of the Italians maintain that during 
the busy summer season work is easily found for all, and therefore an 
excess of laborers does not exist. It should be remembered, however, 
that the busy season lasts for onl}- a small part of the year. If there 
were fewer laborers, they might be employed for a larger part of the 
year. 



CHAPTER VI 

POVERTY 

We will now study the relative number of undesir- 
able elements in the various ethnic factors, using 
pauperism and crime as indices. Under the first head 
are included the dependent and semi-dependent classes. 
The most important statistics bearing upon pauperism 
are those from the almshouses. The figures in Table 
XVII give the number of persons by place of birth and 
by parent nativity residing in the almshouses during the 
winter of 1 899-1900. There are two almshouses in the 
city of Boston : one, situated on Long Island, is for the 
ordinary city paupers ; the other, located in Charlestown, 
is used exclusively for aged persons of both sexes. The 
former contained 616 residents and the latter 99, making 
a total of 715. This does not include all of Boston's 
paupers, as those who have not acquired a residence in 
Boston are sent to state institutions. The numbers and 
nationalities of these cannot be obtained. The percent- 
ages in the table are found by dividing the number of 
each nationality in the almshouses by the total number 
of that nationality residing in Boston in 1900. 

The percentage of those in almshouses for the city as 
a whole is .127, and only the Irish and the Scotch show 
a higher ratio. Ireland is far ahead of any other na- 
tionality in the number of its paupers. The column 
for parent nativity also shows the same thing. Al- 
though the percentage is somewhat smaller reckoned 
according to parent nativity, the actual number is 
greater by 143, while the numbers for Great Britain, 
the United States, and British America are smaller by 
parent nativity than by place of birth. This shows 



39 1 ] Poverty 85 

Tabi,e XVII. — Paupers in the City Almshouses by Place of 
Birth and by Parent Nativity for the Year 1899-1900.' 

Birthplace Males Females Total ^^^'^ Nativit ^°- Cent 

City {Total)^ 328 387 715 .127 

Ireland 118 245 363 .517 Ireland 506 .323 

Scotland 6 7 13 .290 Mixed 64 .215 

England i 12 13 .098 Great Britain _ 23 .097 

United States 182 88 270 .074 Negro 6 .052 

British Anier. 12 24 36 .071 United States. 61 .029 

Negro 156 .052 Germany 6 .027 

Germany 415 .047 Italy 4 .019 

Italy 3 3 .022 Brit. America _ 9 .017 

France i i Sweden 

Switzerland _ i i Switzerland 

Wales I I Holland 

East Indies __ i i Russia 

Sweden i i Finland 

Finland i i Unknown 3] 

that some of the paupers who were born in these coun- 
tries are of Irish parentage. Others are of mixed 
parentage. Great Britain ranks next to Ireland in the 
proportion of paupers estimated both by place of birth 
and by parent nativity. Scotland, however, has a con- 
siderably larger proportion of paupers than England. 
According to this list the Negroes have a somewhat 
smaller proportion of paupers than the native whites, 
though the proportion reckoned by parent nativity is 
considerably larger. The small proportions of Germans 
and of Italians in the almshouses are noticeable, as is also 
the small number of British Americans reckoned by 
parent nativity. Perhaps the most noticeable thing, 
however, is the entire absence of Jews. One girl of 
Russian parentage was in the almshouse at this time, 
but it was not a case of pauperism, for she was taken 
there merely for hospital treatment. 

^ The table is arranged in the order of percentages for those nation- 
alities only which have more than one representative. The figures in 
this table have never appeared in any of the reports of the pauper in- 
stitutions. Access to the records was kindly given me by the pauper 
commissioners. 



86 American Economic Association [392 

The sex of the paupers is of some interest. Forty- 
five per cent are males — a somewhat smaller propor- 
tion than the proportion of males in the city, which is 48 
per cent. Although 42 per cent of the Irish inhabitants 
in the city are males, only 32 per cent of the Irish 
paupers are males. The males are in excess of the 
females in the Scotch population of the city, but in the 
almshouses the Scotch females predominate. Among 
the English in the city also the males slightly exceed 
the females, but twelve of the thirteen English paupers 
are females. Male paupers of native birth, and also 
those of German birth, exceed the females by a con- 
siderable margin, though in the native born population 
the females exceed the males. Thirty-three per cent of 
the British American paupers are males as against 41 
per cent of the British American inhabitants of the city. 
The Negroes in the city are about equally divided as to 
sex, but only one of the 6 colored paupers is a male. All 
the Italian paupers are females, notwithstanding the 
fact that 60 per cent of the Italians in the city are 
males. 

As a large number of paupers belonging more es- 
pecially to the more recent immigrants are sent to state 
institutions, the proportions for the state are given in 
Table XVIII, in order to ascertain whether the small per- 

Tabi^e XVIII. — Percentages of Paupers for the State, 1S95, 
BY Place of Birth.' 



Natiotiality Per Cent 

State .33 

Ireland 1.39 

Wales 1.30 

Switzerland .74 

Negroes .62 

Scotland .51 

Germany .51 

England .48 

France .43 



Nationality Per Cent 

Portugal .34 

Holland .33 

United States .33 

Norway .31 

British America,. .24 

Sweden .20 

Italy .16 

Russia and Poland . 16 



^ Compiled from the reports of the state census for 1895. 



393] Poverty 87 

centages for the Italians and the Jews are due to the fact 
that they have not obtained residence in the city. The 
percentages are obtained by dividing the number of 
paupers of each nationality as reported in the census of 
1895 by the total number of each nationality in the 
state. The general order of the table, however, is 
similar for the leading nationalities to that in Table 
XVII. The Irish, Scotch, and English are still well up 
in the list, while the Swedes, Italians, and Jews are at 
the foot. The chief difference lies in the larger propor- 
tion of Negroes and of Germans and of the two less im- 
portant nationalities, the French and the Swiss. 

The almshouses, of course, contain the extreme type 
of paupers, those who, for a part of the year at least, are 
wholly dependent upon the city for their support. Be- 
sides these complete dependents, a large number of 
families are receiving assistance from one source or 
another, and statistics for a part of this relief work may 
be obtained. Some years ago the Associated Charities 
of Boston published in their annual reports the new 
cases by place of birth of the head of the family, and 
from these reports are compiled in Table XIX the aver- 
ages for the three years 1889, 1890, and 1891, and the 
percentages are obtained by comparing them with the 
total numbers of the different nationalities in Boston in 
1890. 

Tabi,e XIX. — Proportions of the Various Nationalities 
appearing in the " new cases " of the associated 
Charities for the Years 1889, 1890, 1891. 

Nationality No. Per Cent Nationality No. Per Cent 

France and Belg. 27 )A, 2.45 Scot'd and Wales 19 .40 

Spain and Port. _ 13 % 1.39 Russia and Pol. _ 19 >3 .36 

Negro . 68 .83 British America. 127 .33 

Italy 30 % .65 Germany 31 %. .30 

Ireland 435 y^ .61 Scandinavia 11 .25 

England 63 .46 United States 309 % .11 

In considering the table, however, it is important to 



88 American Ecojiomic Association [394 

bear in mind two things. First, these figures give only 
the cases dealt with for the first time during the years 
mentioned, and not all the cases dealt with. The table 
consequently favors the older nationalities, because with 
them a smaller proportion of the total number of cases 
dealt with would be new cases. Secondly, there is a 
difference between the degree of dependence of the fam- 
ilies considered in this table and that of those consid- 
ered in the previous tables. These families are only 
partially dependent, and in many cases only temporarily 
so, or they may be simply in need of the attention of 
some benevolent individual. Again, as the number of 
families is given instead of individuals, any comparison 
will have to be made on the supposition that the aver- 
age size of the families is the same for each nationality. 
This, as we have already seen, is not true ; but making 
some allowance for the larger families of the Italians 
and Jews, this table will give useful auxiliary figures. 

Studying the table, then, in the light of these consid- 
erations, the French and the Portuguese take the lead. 
A large number among these nationalities — like the 
Portuguese needle women who get only $2.00 or $3.00 
a week — are just struggling along, barely able to main- 
tain themselves if given some outside help. Such 
families are most liable to become wards of the Associ- 
ated Charities. The Negroes and the Italians come 
next on the list of the Associated Charities, although 
not a large number of either were found in the alms- 
houses. After these come the older nationalities, the 
Irish and the British, who rank first on the list among 
the paupers. The Germans and Scandinavians are well 
toward the foot of the list, as they are in the table 
showing the number of paupers in the city almshouses. 
The poverty existing among the Jews is best indicated 



395] Poverty 89 

by Table XIX. Although they are comparatively free 
from pauperism, a great deal of poverty is to be met 
with among them. Much of the Jewish relief work is 
simply assisting a man to start in business, though re- 
peated relief is given in not a few instances. 

Table XIX gives by no means an adequate idea of the 
number of families which are receiving charitable aid even 
through private agencies. Nearly all nationalities have 
charitable societies of their own, and other societies do 
not observe national distinctions. It is impossible to as- 
certain the amount of this charity from private sources 
which goes to different nationalities. And even the 
large amount of relief work done by the overseers of the 
poor cannot now be used in this connection, because the 
place of birth of the recipients of out-door relief from 
the overseers is not given at the present time. From 
1864 to 1872, however, the number of cases relieved by 
the overseers was published by place of birth of recipi- 
ents, and is of interest, not only because of the large 
number included, but because an opportunity is given 
of comparing the conditions of an earlier period with 
those of a later. The figures are the totals for the eight 
years, and the percentages are found by comparing them 
with the population for 1870. 7334 families were as- 
sisted, including 23,354 individuals. 

Table XX. — Proportion of the Various Nationalities 
RECEIVING Aid from the Overseers for the Years 
1864-1872.' 

Nationality No. Per Cent Nationality No. Per Cent 

England and Wales 339 5.56 France 13 2. 11 

Ireland 3)i54 5-54 Germany 108 1.92 

Scotland 88 4.90 United States 3.944 1-87 

British America 481 3.48 Other countries 107 

In the above table the number of the nationalities 
is, unfortunately, given by families and not by individ- 
' Compiled from the reports of the overseers of the poor. 



go American Economic Association [396 

uals, so that an allowance must be made for differences 
in the size of families among the different nationalities. 
Only those which at that time were most important are 
given in this table, but the general results for these are 
the same as in the preceding tables. The English show 
a somewhat higher percentage than in the preceding 
table, ranking slightly above the Irish ; but it is proba- 
ble that the Irish families were larger at that time than 
were those of any other nationality, and consequently if 
individuals were reported they would rank far ahead of 
the English. The general fact, however, that natives of 
the British Isles rank ahead of other nationalities is 
shown in this table as in those preceding. The Ger- 
mans and the French show a very small percentage, 
although probably the German families included more 
individuals than the French. 

A final set of figures concerning persons who are on 
the border line between paupers and criminals are those 
from the Wayfarer's Lodge, the city institution which 
provides lodging and breakfast in exchange for work. 
These figures are of no great significance. It is proba- 
ble that many individuals find their way several times 
during the year to this institution, and the number who 
claim Boston as their home is not known. Comparing 
the averages for 1894, 1895, and 1896 with the males of 
the various nationalities in the city for 1895, the order 
is as follows : — 

Table XXI. — Proportions of the Various Nationalities 

RECEIVED AT THE WAYFARER'S LODGE FOR THE AVER- 
AGE OF THE Years 1894-95-96.1 
• Compiled from the reports of the overseers of the poor. 
Nationality No. Per Cent Nationality No Per Cent 

Scotland 968 32.28 United States 12,458 7.97 

England 2,046 29.82 Other countries __ 1,571 4.81 

Ireland 7.761 25.52 

British America __. 1,248 11.29 Total 26,052 9.20 



397] Poverty 91 

The Scotch are far ahead of other nationalities, and 
the percentage of the English and of the Irish is much 
larger than that for the total. The number of the Ital- 
ians and of the Jews is so small as not to be given under a 
separate head. Although this is only one of many head- 
quarters for tramps in the city, and by no means a pop- 
ular one, owing to the work required of the lodgers, a 
sufficiently large number of cases are included to make 
it a rough index of the nationalities among the " hobo " 
fraternity. 

An analysis of the causes of poverty was made some 
years ago by Professor Amos G. Warner from statistics 
gathered from a number of cities. Table XXII, taken 
from his book on charities, is of some assistance in 
throwing light upon that difficult question, although the 
nationalities selected do not represent Boston's popula- 

TABI.E XXII.— Causes of Poverty by Selected Nationai^ities. 

r„.,r„c. American Colored German Irish Total 

causes ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^_ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ ^ 

Employment 137 21.3; 24 17.39 

Sickness 163 25.38 63 45.65 

Drink 141 21.96 II 7.97 

Shiftlessness \ - „ _ . , ^, 

Inefficiency ) ^^ 7-47 6 4-34 

Other 153 34 

Total 642 30.93 138 6.65 59 2.84 652 31.42 2,075 

tion. The relative importance of the various causes of 
poverty differs in different cities. For the total number 
Boston shows a larger percentage under the heads of 
"drink" and "sickness" and a much smaller percent- 
age for "matters of employment." The difference is 
probably due to the greater number of Irish in Boston's 
population. Among the Americans sickness is the 
chief cause of poverty, and "drink" and "matters of 
employment " come next in about the same proportions. 

' Warner, American charities, pp. 49-50. 



12 20.33 107 
14 23 72 151 

9 15-25 217 


16.41 

23-15 
33-28 


414 
543 
475 


1995 
26.16 
22.89 


9 15-25 29 


4 44 


142 


6.84 


15 149 




501 





92 American Economic Association [398 

As compared with the percentage for the total, however, 
cases due to sickness and drink are slightly below the 
average, and those due to matters of employment and 
inefficiency slightly above it. Among the Negroes sick- 
ness is responsible for nearly half the cases, by far the 
largest percentage of any group due to this cause. K much 
larger percentage of the Negroes of Boston come under 
this head than is the case in the other cities given. 
Matters of employment are also above the average, 
but all the other causes are below the average for the 
whole number. Only a small number of cases are given 
for the Germans, but it should be noted that drink is a 
comparatively unimportant cause of poverty. Shiftless- 
ness and inefficiency take a more important place with 
them than it does with other nationalities — contrary to 
the recognized qualities of the race. With the Irish 
drink is much the most important factor, and with them 
alone does it appear as the most important. It includes 
one-third of the cases. All the other causes are less im- 
portant than they are in the totals. 

According to this table, then, sickness is the most 
important cause with all but the Irish. Matters of em- 
ployment is important with all the factors, but especially 
so with the Americans and the Germans. Drink is an 
important cause only with the Irish and the Americans. 
Shiftlessness and inefficiency is not a common cause of 
poverty with any nationality, but is most common with 
the Germans. 

The foregoing statistics on poverty, although some- 
what fragmentary, cannot fail to give some definite 
results. The tables for the almshouses are the most 
important, because, besides dealing with the more ex- 
treme forms of poverty, the averages are more accurate. 
A larger proportion of the Irish than of any other nation- 



399] Poverty 93 

ality come to downright pauperism, and throughont the 
city probably as large a proportion of them as of any 
nationality would be found to belong to the class of the 
very poor, who from one source or another obtain out- 
door relief during at least a portion of the year. Many 
of the Irish paupers are single persons, most frequently 
women, who come to this country when young, and who 
for years probably obtain fair employment but make 
small savings. As time passes employment becomes 
more difficult to obtain, and, having no one to care for 
them, these women find their final refuge in the alms- 
house. Irish families swell the ranks of the city poor for 
various reasons. It cannot be said that the ordinary Irish- 
man is of a provident disposition ; he lives in the present 
and worries comparatively little about the future. He 
is not extravagant in any particular way, but is waste- 
ful in every way ; it is his nature to drift when he ought 
to plan and economize. This disposition, combined 
with an ever-present tendency to drink too much, is 
liable to result in insecure employment and a small in- 
come. And to make matters worse, in families of this 
kind children are born with reckless regularity. So 
long as these children are wholly dependent, they are of 
course a burden upon their parents ; but when children 
arrive at a wage-earning age, large families among the 
shiftless are better off than small families, because im- 
provident families, if they had no children, would not 
save the amount which the rearing of the children costs. 
The high rate of mortality among Irish children, how- 
ever, makes the economic burden heavier. 

Next to the Irish come the Scotch and the English, 
the Scotch particularly having a large representation in 
the almshouses. All the figures go to show that we 
have received from Great Britain a considerable con- 



94 American Economic Association [400 

tingent bordering on pauperism, and families in moder- 
ate circumstances have been obliged to seek assistance 
chiefly through misfortune and lack of employment. 
The British Charitable Society occasionally assists such 
families to return to their native land. 

It would be difficult to give the exact order of pau- 
perism among the other nationalities. The Negroes 
show a small number of paupers in the city institutions, 
though a larger propoition are in the state institutions, 
and a large proportion also get out-door relief. In ad- 
dition to this, many Negro families not regularly as- 
sisted are very poor, women's wages very often de- 
termining their standard of living. 

So far as almshouse pauperism is concerned, the 
British Americans and natives of the United States 
would rank even ahead of the Negroes, but there is less 
general poverty among them than among almost any 
other nationality. In the case of the United States, as 
might be supposed, the proportion of general poverty is 
less than it is with an}'- of the other nationalities, be- 
cause the native population includes a larger proportion 
of persons belonging to the wealthy class. From every 
population of any size there is sifted out after a time a 
good-for-nothing element, — a semi-criminal class, — and 
this class is shown in the native population by the large 
number of males of Boston birth who have found their 
way into the almshouses. Nearly all of these, it is 
true, are of foreign parentage ; but a considerable num- 
ber remain whose parents were born in the United 
States outside of Boston. This class consists largely of 
unattached males, some of whom spend their winters in 
the almshouse and others in penal institutions. They 
are affiliated with the tramp class noted in Table XXI. 



40i] Poverty 95 

Poverty among the Italians and the Jews is very 
different from that among the native population. Both 
these nationalities consist of recent immigrants, among 
whom hopeless pauperism has not risen. Families who 
need assistance in one way or another are, however, 
very numerous. It may be that work fails or is unre- 
munerative and temporary assistance has to be given, or 
it may be that families distant from relatives and per- 
haps even from friends have to accept aid from charitable 
societies in case of sickness or other misfortune. 

Among the Portuguese poverty is greater and more 
hopeless than it is among the Jews or the Italians, al- 
though there are no Portuguese in the almshouses. 
Few of the Portuguese are really well to do, while 
many are partially dependent because the labor of 
women, who are often obliged to support the family, is 
often too unremnnerative to ensure their independence. 
Portuofuese women who have shown their low moral 
sense by rearing a family of fatherless children exhibit 
their courage and industry by sewing early and late to 
gain a meagre living for their little ones. 

The Germans and Scandinavians may be mentioned 
last. In the table of the almshouse paupers (Table 
XVII) as well as in all the other tables of persons re- 
ceiving assistance — with the exception of the table for 
the state paupers (Table XVIII), in which the Germans 
are somewhat above the average — the small numbers of 
Germans and Scandinavians is noticeable. Occasionally, 
it is true, idle and shiftless families are found among 
both these peoples, but on the whole they are industrious 
and thrifty, and less hopeless poverty is found among them 
than among almost any of the other foreign immigrants. 

It is interesting to compare the amount of dependence 



96 Atnerican Eco7tomic Association [402 

which actually arises among the various nationalities 
with the condition of the immigrants as they arrive. 
The law naturally goes on the supposition that immi- 
grants with the smallest resources will be most liable to 
become a public charge. The southern Italians and 
Jews, as we have seen, bring the smallest amount of 
money with them, and with both nationalities a com- 
paratively large percentage is excluded on the ground 
that they are likely to become a public charge. Yet 
pauperism has hardly shown itself among either na- 
tionality. A considerable number, however, though by 
no means an exceptionally large number, apply for tem- 
porary aid. On the other hand, the English and the 
Scotch are as a class the most well-to-do of all immi- 
grants, but a large contingent of dependents, both total 
and partial, are sifted out of both nationalities. The 
fact, however, that a large percentage of English and 
Scotch steerage passengers is debarred shows that the 
two classes of immigrants come from the British Isles, 
and probably a sufficiently large number of inferior im- 
migrants obtain admission to make up their number of 
dependents. Irish immigrants have moderate resources 
and few are debarred, but perhaps on the whole they 
furnish the largest proportion of dependents of any na- 
tionality. Pauperism among the Irish seems to be 
connected somewhat with the disproportionately large 
number of female immigrants. This is less noticeable 
with the British Americans, for their women enter differ- 
ent occupations from the Irish immigrants, and if work 
fails them, they can more easily return to their homes. 
The small degree of pauperism among the Germans 
and Scandinavians shows the effect of their better finan- 
cial condition. 



403] Poverty 97 

No closer relationship exists between pauperism and 
illiteracy, as literacy generally accompanies a better 
financial condition. Nor does any relationship appear 
between pauperism and the rate of natural increase. In 
fact pauperism is in almost the reverse order to the rate 
of increase of the nationalities. The Germans, Swedes, 
Russians and Italians are increasing most rapidly. The 
wholly dependent do not as a class multiply rapidly. 
7 



CHAPTER VII 

CRIME 

We pass now from a study of the dependent classes to 
that of the delinquent classes. This will be a study of 
morality from the negative rather than from the positive 
side, as there is no exact measure of the moral plane of 
a social group. A basis for the facts may be found in 
statistics gathered from police reports and from reports 
of prisons and houses of correction. These statistics are 
much more complete and satisfactory than those on 
pauperism because the state reserves to itself the entire 
authority in dealing with crime, while innumerable 
societies and private individuals make spasmodic attacks 
on the problem of poverty, leaving the state to take care 
of only the uninteresting and the hopeless. 

Police reports give the most general information con- 
cerning crime. The percentages in Table XXIII are 
obtained by comparing the averages for the years 1894, 
1895, and 1896 with the population for 1895. The table 
represents the total number of accused persons, and 
hence the average would represent a smaller degree of 
crime than would the statistics for the penal institutions. 
The accuracy of the table is modified somewhat by the 

Tabi,e XXIII. — Average Number of Arrests by Pi.ace of Birth 
FOR THE Years 1894, 1895, 1896.1 

Birthplace Arrests Per Cent Birthplace Arrests Per Cent 

City {Total) 44,455 S.g England i,573 ii-8 

Portugal 45 3.7 Sweden 581 11. 8 

Germany 457 4.2 Italy 956 12. i 

Russia 674 5-61 j.o Scotland 658 14.0 

Poland 90 7.3/^' Ireland 11,584 16.2 

United States. _ 22,749 7-i Norway 194 20.1 

British America 3,601 8.1 China 525 65.1 

France 115 11. 6 Greece 348 325.2 

' Compiled from the police reports. 



405] Crime 99 

fact that many of the persons arrested are not residents 
of the city, but the numbers are sufficiently large to give 
a good basis for comparison. 

The percentage for the total population is 8.9, and 
those nationalities which have a smaller average than this 
are the Portuguese, Germans, Russians, Poles, Ameri- 
cans, and British Americans ; but only the Portuguese, 
the Germans, and the Jews have a smaller average than 
the native population. The Germans and the Jews are 
law-abiding people, but the small percentage of the 
Portuguese shows how little trouble thev give to the 
authorities, rather than any high standard of morality 
on their part. 

The French, the English, and the Swedes show about 
the same percentage of arrests, all being somewhat 
above the average. The Italians, Scotch, and Irish 
come next with a somewhat larger percentage. The Nor- 
wegians, though few in numbers, have a worse record 
than the Irish, the arrests amounting to 20 per cent of 
the total. Even this, however, cannot be compared with 
the astonishingly large number of arrests among the 
Chinese and the Greeks. With the former the arrests 
amount to 65 per cent of the total number, while the 
figures for the latter show that on the average every 
Greek in the city is arrested over three times in a year. 
Although persons familiar with criminal statistics will 
not be surprised at these figures, a word of explanation 
is needed. Neither nationality is made up of such 
abandoned criminals as the figures would seem to indi- 
cate, as the criminal records of both cease almost entirely 
at the police courts. The explanation is simple : the 
Greeks are nearly all peddlers, and many among them 
take the risk of peddling without a license, with the 
result that a wholesale arrest of peddlers takes place 
L.cf'C. 



I oo Aviei'ican Eco7iomic Association [406 

until all have obtained their licenses. In the case of 
the Chinese the explanation is to be found in their love 
of gambling. A raid on Chinatown on a Saturday night 
is of common occurrence. Nearly always some gaming 
implements and a load of frightened Chinamen are 
captured. Whether the jDolice are as assiduous in eradi- 
cating vice from all sections of the city as they are in 
prohibiting fan-tan in Chinatown statistical tables do 
not indicate. If the Chinese should fail habitually in 
the payment of their fines and have to be sent to the 
house of correction, the ardor for stamping out gambling 
in that particular quarter might be somewhat abated. 

There are several reasons for using caution in making 
the number of arrests an index of vice. One of the 
great problems in the treatment of crime arises from the 
fact that the agents of the law do not, for one reason or 
another, bring the law to bear equally on every member 
of society. Allowance has to be made first for the 
" personal equation " of officers ; all officers do not see 
crime with the same degree of accuracy, either because 
of differences in judgment, or because of the action of 
various external influences. In the second place, the 
amount of room in penal institutions reacts upon the 
number of arrests made in the city. If the penal insti- 
tutions are crowded, the police officers have to be less 
strict in enforcing the laws. It is also unfortunate that 
some officers feel obliged to make an arrest once in so 
often, in order to keep up an appearance of activity. 
For several reasons, therefore, it will be seen that the 
law may be unequally applied at different times and in 
different districts. Yet Table XXIII includes a suffi- 
cient number of cases to give a rough index of the com- 
parative number of suspected persons among the differ- 
ent nationalities. 



407] Crime 10 1 

More satisfactory results can be obtained from the 
statistics in Table XXIV of the inmates of the houses of 
correction at South Boston and at Deer Island. These 
figures give the relative amount of lighter offences 
among the different nationalities. Both males and 
females are sent to the houses of correction, the most 
common offences being assault and battery, larceny, 
drunkenness, idle and disorderly conduct, and vagran- 
cy. The population of the house of correction at Deer 
Island is not given for 1895 by place of birth. The first 
statistics which can be obtained for both institutions are 
in 1897, and these are given in the table. The figures 
for a single year are given, but the percentages are sub- 
stantially the same as for the average of the two years 
1897 and 1898. 

Table XXIV. — Commitments to the Houses oe Correction 

FOR THE Year 1897, by Place of Birth. ^ 
Nationality Number Per Cent Nationality Nmnber Per Cent 

City {Total) ^^,736 2.^6 British America. 1,066 2.41 

Portugal I ^.08 Sweden 135 2.76 

Russia 32 \ Negroes 315 2.32 

Poland 15 /'^^ England 516 3.88 

Germany 55 .50 Scotland 198 4.22 

France 15 1.52 Norway 49 5.09 

Italy 123 1.55 Ireland 3,691 5.15 

United States 3, 716 ^1.80 Wales 21 6.50 

Comparing these figures with those for the arrests, a 

close resemblance may be observed. The numbers for 

the Germans and the Jews are next to the smallest on 

this list. For these lighter offenses the French and the 

Italians have a better record than in the previous table, 

both being below the average for the city. This forces 

the British Americans just above the average, although 

in both cases they come next to the native born. The 

' Compiled from the reports of the two Boston houses of corrtclion. 
' Only one Portuguese was in the house of correction in 1897, though 
three were committed in 1898. 

^Massachusetts 1.67, other states 2.29. 



102 American Econoinic Association [408 

order for the remainder conforms pretty closely to that 
in the table for arrests. The English and the Irish 
show a slightly larger proportion. The Irish have the 
largest proportion of any of the more important nation- 
alities, and the majority are committed for drunkenness. 
The Welsh have a larger percentage even than the Irish, 
and the same thing was true for 1898. The Negroes 
are separated from the native whites in this table, and 
show a percentage considerably above the average, 
although, as will appear later on, this is a small propor- 
tion for the Negroes. 

In order to get at crimes of a more serious nature it 
will be necessary to turn to state institutions. For this 
purpose the state prison, the reformatory for women, 
and the Massachusetts reformatory have been selected ; 
and the number of persons committed to these institu- 
tions for the three years 1894, 1895, and 1896 are given 
in the following table. The proportions are found by 
comparing them with the inhabitants of the state rather 
than with those of the city. 

TABI.E XXV. — Commitments to the State Penal Institutions 
FOR THE Three Years 1S94, 1895, and 1S96, 
BY Place of Birth.' 
Nationality Number Per Cent Nationality Number Per Cent 

State [Total) 4,010 .12 Norway 5 .16 

Portugal 5 .03 British America 394 .16 

Sweden 14 .05 United States 2,913 .17 

Russia 26 .09 Scotland 47 .19 

Germany 33 .11 England i6j .19 

France 4 .11 Italy 36 .23 

Negroes' 120 .45 

' Compiled from the reports of the institutions. 

^The figures for the Negroes are only approximate. Negroes are 
not given in the regular reports, and only the commitments to the 
state prison and the Concord reformatorj' for 1895 could be obtained. 
Forty Negroes were committed to these two institutions in 1895, and 
this is taken as the average for the commitments for the three years. 
As the few who were committed each year to the women's reforma- 
tory are left out of account, this average is doubtless too small rather 
than too large. 



409] Crime 103 

The order of nationalities in this table does not differ 
greatly from the preceding table, though the changes 
are significant. The Portuguese, Jews, and Germans 
have few representatives in either the state or the city 
institutions ; but in this case they are joined by the 
Swedes, who have almost as small a proportion as the 
Portuguese. In this table the Irish show only about an 
average amount of crime, while the Italians are respon- 
sible for a larger amount of serious crime than any other 
nationality excepting the Negroes. The figures for 
the Negroes, though giving only a rough estimate of the 
amount of crime among them, are sufficiently accurate 
to show that a very much greater criminality exists 
among the Negroes than among any other racial group. 
The Americans and the British iVmericans hold a higher 
relative position in this table than in the preceding 
tables, the Americans showing the higher percentage 
of the two. The Scotch and the English, also, have 
higher relative percentages than in the preceding tables. 

By omitting now the figures for the state prison, it is 
possible to study crime both by place of birth and by 
parent nativity, thus giving an idea of crime among the 

Tabi,e XXVI. — Commitments to the Massachusetts Rerorma- 

TORY AND THE REFORMATORY FOR WOMEN FOR 1894, 1895, 

1896, BY Pr,ACE OF Birth and by Parent Nativity. 

Place of Birth Nmnber Per Cent Parentage Number Per Cent 

State {Total) __ 3,438 .10 

Portugal 2 .02 Portugal 7 .03 

Sweden 12 .04 Sweden 15 .04 

France 2 .05 Italy 15 .07 

Italy 10 .06 RussiaandPol. 26 .08 

Russia and Pol. 24 .08 Germany 43 .08 

Germany 26 .08 United States. 757 .oS 

Norway 3 .09 Norway 4 .10 

Ireland 290 .11 Scotland 36 .10 

British America 346 .13 England 107 .10 

United States__ 2,515 .15 British Amer. _ 3S0 .12 

Scotland 42 .17 France 7 .14 

England 143 .17 Ireland 1,265 ^22 



I04 America7i Ecoyiomic Association [410 

second generation. It happens that the order of nation- 
alities by place of birth for the two institutions in Table 
XXVI is substantially the same as for the three institu- 
tions in the preceding table, with the exception that in 
omitting the state prison the percentage of Italians is 
greatly diminished, which shows that the serious 
crimes among the Italians are committed chiefly by adult 
males. France also shows a slightly diminished per- 
centage. 

What, now, are the significant changes in the order of 
nationalities when reckoned by parent nativity? The 
Portuguese, Swedes, Italians, Jews, and Germans still show 
small proportions of crime. The significant change lies 
in the marked increase of the Irish both in absolute and 
in relative numbers. In absolute numbers the increase 
was from 290 to 1265, and the relative position changed 
from the eighth to the twelfth place. The increased num- 
bers were drawn from the Americans, the Scotch, and the 
English, all of whom show a smaller number of criminals 
reckoned by parent nativity than by place of birth. 
This leaves the proportion of crime for the Americans 
below the average, and that for the Scotch and English 
is relatively reduced. The increase in the percentage 
of the French is also considerable, but their small num- 
bers make them less important. It should be noted that 
the British Americans show an increase in crime by 
parent nativity over that by place of birth, notwith- 
standing the fact that the increase in the Irish might be 
expected to draw upon them as well as the other English- 
speaking people. Consequently the British Americans 
have a higher percentage than the Scotch and the 
English. 

A rough analysis of the forms of crime most prevalent 
among the various nationalities can be made for men in 
the state prison and for women in the reformatory for 



4ii] Crime 105 

women. The percentages are based on the number of 
commitments for three years, 1894, 1895, and 1896. 
Crimes are divided into three classes : crimes against the 
person, crimes against property, and crimes against pub- 
lic order ; and they are arranged in a descending scale 
of seriousness, crimes against the person being the most 
serious. 

Tabi,e XXVII.— Classified Offences for the State Prison by 
Pi<ACE of Birth, 1894, 1895, and 1896. 





Per Cent 


Per Cent 


Per Cent 


Place of Birth Absolute No. 


against the 


against 


against 




Person 


Property 


Public Order 


Total cases 572 


34-6 


52.6 


12.S 


United States. 398 


30.6 


57.8 


II. 5 


British Amer._ 48 


37-5 


50.0 


12.5 


Ireland 43 


56.0 


32.5 


II. 5 


Italy 26 


769 


7.7 


15-4 


England 18 


16.7 


61.1 


22.2 


Germany 7 


0.0 


85.7 


14-3 


Scotland 5 


20.0 


40.0 


40.0 



Of the total number sentenced to the state prison, a 
few more than one-half were convicted for crimes against 
property and a few more than one-third for crimes 
against the person. The Americans and the British 
Americans do not vary greatly from this average, al- 
though the Americans have a somewhat larger propor- 
tion against property, and the British Americans a some- 
what larger proportion against the person. Of the Amer- 
icans, natives of Massachusetts show a larger percentage 
of persons convicted for crimes against the person and a 
much smaller percentage convicted for crimes against 
public order than do the natives of other states. Compara- 
tively few Irish are in the state prison, but more than half 
of them were convicted for crimes against the person. 
The record of the Italians is worse than this, however, 
for three-fourths of their number were sentenced for 
crimes against the person. The numerous assaults in 
the Italian quarter is all that makes the criminal record 



io6 



American Economic Association 



[412 



of the Italians large. A smaller proportion were con- 
victed for crimes against property than of any other na- 
tionality. On the other hand, the English and the Ger- 
mans show much smaller proportions convicted for 
crimes against the person and larger proportions for 
crimes against property. Eighty-six per cent of the Ger- 
mans were convicted for crimes against property, and 
none for crimes against the person. Only one Russian 
was sentenced to the state prison during the three years 
under consideration, and he was sentenced for an offense 
against property. The Scotch show an unusually large 
percentage of convicts under the head of public order, 
but the total number of Scotch is too small to draw any 
conclusion. 

The number sentenced to the reformatory for women 
is larger, and hence the comparisons are more satisfac- 
tory. So few women are sentenced for crimes against 
the person that the first two classes of the previous table 
are combined ; only 10.7 per cent of the whole number 

Table; XXVIII. — Cr^ASSiFiED Offenses of the Inmates of the 
Women's Reformatory by Place of Birth and by Parent 
Nativity, 1894-96. 



Place of 
Birth 




Per Cent ag^ st 


Per Cent 


Per Cent 


Total Cases 


Person and 


against 


against 




Property 


Chastity 


Public Order 


Total 


gSS 


10.7 


20.0 


69-3 


United States 


581 


12.3 


22.2 


65.5 


British Amer. 


123 


10.6 


19-5 


69.9 


Ireland 


183 


8.8 


8.7 


83.0 


England _ __ 


57 


1.8 


17-5 


80.7 


Scotland 


21 


4 9 


33-3 


61.8 


Germany 


7 


14.2 


57-2 


28.6 


Pare tit 
Nativity 




Per Cent ag^st 


Per Cent 


Per Cent 


Total Cases 


Person and 


against 


against 




Property 


Chastity 


Public Order 


United States 


136 


22.8 


31-6 


45-6 


British Amer. 


91 


25.6 


29.6 


64.8 


Ireland 


443 


7.0 


12.2 


80.8 


England 


34 


5.9 


17.6 


76.5 


Scotland 


15 


6.7 


33-3 


60.0 


Germany 


7 


14.2 


14.2 


71-5 


Mixed 


64 


lO.O 


18.7 


71-3 



413] Crime 107 

were sentenced for crimes against person or property. A 
new classification, crimes against chastity, is made, and 
includes 20 per cent of the total number of convicts. 
This leaves much the largest proportion, 69.3 per cent, 
sentenced for crimes against public order. In other 
words, a larger proportion of the women are convicted 
for what are technically less serious offences, but what 
are, nevertheless, just as demoralizing to the social well 
being. In this case a comparison of the nationalities 
can be made, reckoned by parent nativity as well as by 
place of birth. 

As in the previous table, the United States and British 
America show percentages which are similar to the per- 
centages for the total. Those for British America are 
almost identical, while those for the United States in the 
first two classes are somewhat larger than the average. 
Turning to parent nativity the differences are even more 
marked. The first two classes, comprising the more 
serious offences, have much larger percentages than are 
shown by the average. It is a fact that the native stock 
shows a greater propensity towards sexual immorality 
than do most of the immigrant races. Women from 
other parts of the United States who have migrated to 
Massachusetts show an even larger proportion belonging 
to this class than do natives of Massachusetts. Prison- 
ers of British American parentage also show a much 
larger proportion sentenced for crimes of the second 
class than do most nationalities. 

The noticeable thing in the case of the Irish is the 
large number sentenced for crimes against public order. 
Drunkenness and disorderly conduct cause the arrest of 
the majority of the Irish women. A very small propor- 
tion are sentenced for the more serious offences, and this 
is especially noticeable in the crimes against chastity. 



io8 American Economic Association [414 

This evil is somewhat more common among the sec- 
ond generation, as is evidenced by the figures for the 
parent nativity ; but even here the proportion is much 
below the average. The proportions for the English 
are similar to those for the Irish, although a larger 
number belong to the second class. Very little differ- 
ence obtains in the case of the parent nativity of the 
English. The first class is increased somewhat, but it 
is small in either case. The figures for Scotland are 
small, but they bear out the reputation of the country, 
for one-third, a larger proportion even than is the case 
with the Americans, belongs to the second class. And 
this proportion is not changed in the case of the parent 
nativity. As for the Germans, no definite conclusion 
can be drawn from the small number given in the table. 
The figures for place of birth make the second class the 
most important of all, but according to parent nativity 
it is very small. 

The figures given seem to show that the Americans, 
British Americans, and Scotch are the most addicted to 
sexual immorality, and other sources of information 
tend to confirm this conclusion. Whether it is a race 
characteristic or is simply the result of immediate en- 
vironment is not evident. Some occupations furnish a 
larger number of prostitutes than others. Housework 
and restaurant work furnish the largest. In an investi- 
gation made by the Massachusetts bureau of statistics 
in 1884, 60 out of the 170 prostitutes in Boston were 
reported as coming directly from housework, table work, 
or hotel work.^ Now the nationalities mentioned above 
enter these occupations, or at least restaurant work, to 
a considerable extent ; and they are the occupations 

' Report of the Massachusetts bureau of statistics of labor, 1884, p. 
124. 



415] Crime 109 

which tend to bring girls into the most direct contact 
with unprincipled men. Furthermore these nationalities 
most frequently live in lodging houses, and within the 
privacy of those walls the social evil flourishes. To be 
sure, in the freer life of the tenements there is not a 
little irregularity in the relation of the sexes. Innocence 
is certainly impossible among the children of tenements, 
and modesty is very often lost. Yet the tenements are 
homes of families, such as they are, and the family is 
usually the safeguard against this social evil. One of 
the many paths leading to unchastity lies in the dreari- 
ness of life in a lodging house. Girls whose homes are 
confined to single rooms must still have companions. 
Male acquaintances are easily made and are an agreeable 
relief to the monotony of life. But these girls, away from 
the influence of former friends, living in the midst of a 
great city, lose a certain social and moral support which 
ought normally to surround everyone. The result is 
sometimes that relationships are entered into that would 
not be tolerated in a normal environment. The number 
of prostitutes among shop girls and manufacturing em- 
ployees is generally conceded to be small, but most girls 
in those employments live at home. According to the 
fourth report of the commissioner of labor, out of 1406 
working women included in the investigation for Bos- 
ton, 1 109 lived at home. 

The tables which have been presented throw con- 
siderable light upon the question of crime along ra- 
cial lines, but a clear understanding of the situation 
requires that the tables be interpreted by other than 
statistical evidence. According to the tables the 
Portuguese might be said to have the least tendency 
towards criminality of any nationality. They are in 
truth a law-abiding nationality, but their standard of 



no American Economic Association [416 

morality is exceedingly low. The fact that the Portu- 
guese keep pretty much to themselves makes the in- 
fluence of their immorality less serious. The idea of 
family morality among them is almost primitive, re- 
sembling that of the Negroes of the South. Not only 
are elopements made and repaid in kind without in- 
volving further complications, but also what anthro- 
pologists call " sexual hospitality" is not unknown 
among the Portuguese. Of course sexual looseness is 
not a characteristic of all the Portuguese, but it applies 
to a sufficient number to make it a characteristic of the 
race. The Portuguese are not free from drunkenness 
and thieving, but these faults are more carefull)'' con- 
cealed among them and fewer arrests result than would 
be the case with other nationalities. Many of the 
Portuguese men are idle and thriftless, and some of the 
women are suspected of having been public women in 
the Azore Islands from which they come. On the 
whole the figures for the Portuguese in the foregoing 
tables are misleading as regards the true moral qualities 
of that people. 

Another nationality with a small criminal record is 
the Jews. And this is a much truer index of their 
standard of morality than is the record of the Portuguese. 
The Mosaic law has been ground into the natures of the 
Jews for so many years that now they seem by inherit- 
ance to possess a certain moral stamina which is little 
affected by unfavorable surroundings. The Jews do not 
commit serious assaults ; the appropriations which they 
make of their neighbor's property ordinarily come 
within the limits of the law, and although they drink, 
they are not drunken. In fact as a class they are law- 
abiding, but not all by any means have a high standard 
of morality. In petty quarrels the Jews are a trial even 



417] Crime in 

to the police. They trail np to the police station to 
make accusations against each other, with the most 
liberal offers of " witnesses, witnesses." But they are 
sent home with the astonishing lesson that the police do 
not always take business even when it is offered them. 

The family life of the Jews is, on the whole, very whole- 
some. Unchastity among the women is rare, although 
it is not unknown. Strangely enough, however, deser- 
tion by the men is noticeably frequent among the Jews. 
The desertion of women with helpless infants is one of 
the causes of extreme want among the Jews. It must 
be admitted, also, that some of the younger men who are 
desirous of conforming to the gentile world are no 
longer living in the spirit of Moses' commands concern- 
ing the relation of the sexes. Faults in connection with 
business dealings which are most commonly considered 
to be Jewish are not easily touched by the law. In 
European countries methods of dealing which seem 
small and underhanded when judged by American 
standards are by no means confined to Jewish traders. 
Considering the long persecution of the Jews, which has 
made them feel that every man's hand is against them, 
it is not surprising that when a Jew acquires power he 
may sometimes prove a Shylock. These Jewish quali- 
ties need not be dwelt upon, however, because more 
than justice has been done them by the Gentile imagin- 
ation. Expressions of gratitude and generosity are by 
no means lacking among the Jews, but these qualities 
are shown towards persons whom they trust, and a dis- 
tinction is made between business and other relations. 

The Germans in all the tables given show small per- 
centages of criminals, and they are without doubt one of 
the most law-abiding nationalities in the citv. Althoueh 
few German women are sentenced to penal institutions. 



112 American Economic Association [418 

they would not be counted among the most chaste of the 
various nationalities. The Jews included in the figures 
for the Germans may raise the average somewhat, 
though the gentile Germans might easily be ranked 
next to the Jews in point of public morality. 

The records for the Americans and British Americans 
show about the same amount of crime, and that amount 
is not small. The proportion seldom falls much below 
the average, and it tends to increase with the more seri- 
ous offences. If the parentage were considered instead of 
the place of birth, the percentage for the Americans would 
be considerably below that of the British Americans. It 
is noticeable that in every case persons born in other 
parts of the United States have a larger criminal record 
than those born in Boston. It is easy for loose charac- 
ters to drift to a large city, and Boston gets a variety of 
types from the country towns. If the majority invigor- 
ate the life of the city, a few social renegades weaken 
the social structure. 

If it were not for the well known serious crimes of 
the Italians, they might be ranked as one of the more 
law-abiding of the nationalities. Their record for the 
less serious offences is below the average, and few Ital- 
ian women are arrested. The men drink a good deal 
and gamble for small amounts, but with the Italians 
drunkenness is much less frequent than with the Irish. 
Italian women are nearly all virtuous, and the girls are 
carefully guarded by their parents, for the single men 
living by themselves cannot be trusted. They enter to 
a considerable extent into the social immoralities of the 
North End, and women are not safe from insults on the 
streets, especially on Saturday nights, when laborers 
flock into the colony for Sunday recreation. Neverthe- 
less crime would not be great in the North End if it 



419] Crime 113 

were not for the quick tempers of the men and their en- 
forced idleness. Most of the Italians are not naturally 
vicious ; the conditions of their life are responsible for 
the greater part of their crime. The serious assaults 
arising from quarrels over cards or from sexual jealousies 
make the proportion sentenced to state's prison larger 
than that of any other nationality. Some of the more 
intelligent of the Italians realize the evil resulting from 
men who are forced to live away from their families, in 
crowded quarters, and forced to be idle a large part of 
the year, many of whom are even industrially super- 
fluous to the welfare of the city. 

Crime among the Irish is very different from that 
among the Italians. With the former misdemeanors 
are very prevalent, though serious crimes are not so 
common. Considering the number of arrests and the 
number of persons committed to the houses of correc- 
tion, the proportion of Irish criminals is greater than 
that of any other of the more important nationalities. 
It is only in state's prison offences that the proportion 
is not exceptionally high. Not only is there more 
drunkenness among the Irish than among other nation- 
alities, but drunkenness and crimes resulting directly 
therefrom constitute a large proportion of the Irish 
misdemeanors. There is a moral degradation among 
Irish families as a result of drink which is not found 
among other nationalities. And this brings with it a 
kind of immorality not serious in the eyes of the law, 
yet demoralizing to family life. For quarrels which are 
serious affairs, for flashes of anger which mean a knife 
thrust, one must go to the Italian quarters ; but for tin- 
pan and broom-handle bruises, for nocturnal disturb- 
ances of drunken men and women, for the unremitting 

8 



114 American Economic Association [420 

bellow of brazen voices, there is no place like an Irish 
street. When one sees a man rolled down stairs by his 
wife and mother-in-law, armed with a tin dish and a 
rolling pin, the air thick with dust and expletives, we 
know that his name is Pat. • Disturbances of this kind are 
atoned for, if at all, by a light fine or a short sentence in 
the house of correction. As the latter is not taken very 
seriously, however, it does not cause the culprit to lose 
caste with his associates ; and its deterrent effect is, 
therefore, rather doubtful. The return of one of these 
wanderers who has been " taking a vacation at the sea- 
shore " is simply the occasion for another celebration. 
Misdemeanors of this kind are not confined to the male 
sex ; women as well as men drink and quarrel and 
are sentenced to the reformatories in large numbers for 
offences against public order. Considering all offences 
combined, however, no larger proportion of Irish women 
is arrested than of women of other nationalities, because 
Irish women are particularly free from offences against 
chastity. Irish women of the second generation are not, 
however, to the same extent free from these offences ; 
and when parent nativity is considered, the number of 
women arrested is far in excess of other nationalities. 

Accurate statistics for crime among the Negroes could 
be obtained only for the houses of correction, and conse- 
quently a less exact estimate of the amount of crime 
among them can be made. The proportionate number 
of Negroes in the houses of correction is above the aver- 
age, and the proportion for serious crimes is even higher. 
The proportion of Negro convicts for the state as given 
in the census of 1895 is .76 per cent, as compared with 
23 per cent for the whites. The Italians with .44 per cent 
show the highest percentage of any nationality. This 
corresponds to the approximate number already given in 



42 1 ] Crime 115 

Table XXV for the state institutions. Mr. Work in his 
study of crime among the Negroes in Chicago' finds 
that witli the exception of the Chinese, the Greeks, and 
the Mexicans, the number of Negro arrests is from two 
to eighteen times as great as it is among the various 
foreign groups. And in all the penal institutions a dis- 
proportionately large number of inmates were found to 
be Negroes. In Massachusetts the record for the state 
institutions shows a somewhat similar situation. Thiev- 
ing and robbery are common vices among the Negroes, 
and their numerous quarrels sometimes end in serious 
assaults. They have a great fondness for gambling, and 
some of their club rooms in the South End, where 
whites and Negroes mingle, have been frequently raided 
by the police. The Negroes in general reveal the faults 
of an immature race, and in some ways they show the 
evil effects of slave conditions. These conditions are 
probably partly responsible for the looseness of the 
sexual relation among them. This evil is doubtless as 
extensive among the Negroes themselves as it is among 
other peoples, but the mixing of races makes it much 
more serious. The ordinary idea of irregularity between 
these races is that white men find mistresses among the 
colored women, but the relationships between colored 
men and white women is probably even more extensive. 
The chief desire of many colored men when they come 
North seems to be to obtain a white mistress, and some 
earn high enough wages to have two or three. Besides 
these peculiar forms of immorality, prostitution runs its 
course in the Negro quarters as it does in other districts. 
And in no part of the city are there more open solicita- 
tions or greater loss of self-respect among women than 

' American Journal of Sociology^ September, 1900. 



ii6 American Economic Association [422 

in some of the poorer Negro streets. The evil extends 
openly into the very precincts of family life. 

Turning to the Scotch and the English, we find an 
unexpectedly large number of criminals. Both these 
nationalities are above the average in all the preceding 
tables, and in the most serious offences they show al- 
most the highest proportions of all. Although not a few 
of these criminals are evidently of Irish parentage, 
even with these deducted there is still a high percentage. 
In the more serious offences the English show a higher 
rate than the Scotch. The high percentages of both in 
these cases is due partly to the large number of women 
criminals, for no other nationality show so large a pro- 
portion of women criminals as do the Scotch and the 
English. 

A laree number of Scandinavians also are arrested for 
petty offences, but these nationalities seem to be very 
free from the more serious crimes. In almost every 
case, however, the Norwegians show much less desirable 
qualities than the Swedes. Immorality among some of 
the less important nationalities like the Greeks, the 
Chinese, and the Welsh cannot fairly be estimated from 
the exceptionally large figures which appear in a single 
table. Aside from peculiar legal transactions already 
mentioned, which are by no means so serious in their 
effects as some forms of immorality, these nationalities 
are very law-abiding. 

It will now be interesting to compare the amount of 
crime among the various ethnic factors with some of 
their other characteristics. The relationship between 
crime and illiteracy is often noted, the method usually 
being to show the large number of illiterates among the 
criminals. Such a method obviously does not show any 
causal relationship. The fact is that both crime and illit- 



423] Crime 117 

eracy are effects of the same causes. A glance at the table 
for illiteracy will suffice to show that there is little con- 
nection, in Boston at least, between the amount of crime 
and the amount of illiteracy among the ethnic groups. 
The Italians are among the most illiterate of all, and there 
is also a great deal of serious crime among them, though 
comparatively little of the less serious. On the other 
hand, the English and the Scotch have a large amount 
of serious criminality, though their standard of literacy is 
high. The Portuguese are comparatively law-abiding, 
though they, as well as the Negroes and the Irish, show 
a serious lack of aesthetic morality ; but the difference in 
literacy in these cases is very great. The Germans are 
very generally literate, and are also comparatively law- 
abiding. The Jews, on the other hand, though they are 
much less literate are just as law-abiding. 

In certain places there seems to be a connection be- 
tween the distribution of sexes and crime. In the case 
of the Italians the large excess of single men is one of 
the chief causes of serious offences, and increases greatly 
the minor misdemeanors. In the case of the British 
Americans, also, a large excess of women is accompanied 
by a large amount of immorality, although the excess of 
the Irish women does not have the same result, and im- 
morality among the Americans cannot be traced directly 
to excess of females. American women from country 
districts, however, belong to the same industrial class as 
do the British Americans, and in the occupations which 
these two classes enter wages are undoubtedly too low 
for their social position. It may be said that inability 
to marry either from economic causes or from inequality 
of the sexes favors sexual immoralities. 

Before leaving this consideration of the various forms 
of degeneracy, a brief presentation of the defective 



ii8 American Economic Association [424 

classes may be given to siippletiient the tables for the 
dependent and delinquent classes. Table XXIX is com- 
piled from statistics gathered by the Massachusetts cen- 
sus for 1895^ giving the total number of defectives 
for the state, including persons having acute and 
chronic diseases, the maimed, lame, bed-ridden, paralytic, 
epileptic, insane, idiotic, deaf, dumb, deaf and dumb, 
blind, and those having other physical defects. These 
classes have been combined in Table XXIX and the 
percentages given by place of birth and by parent nativ- 
ity. Of course physical defects, when not congenital, 
do not necessarily show degeneracy ; but the figures in- 
clude a great variety of defects, and taken altogether 
would indicate roughly inherited weakness. 

Tabi,e XXIX. — Proportionate Number of Defectives and of 
Insane in the State by Place of Birth and by Parent 
Nativity, 1895. 



Place of Birth 


Parent Nativity 




Defect- 
ives 


Per 

Cent ^'"^"^ 


Per Defect- 
Cent ives 


Cent ^'"^"^ 


Per 

Cent 


Irish 


3.94 Irish 


.71 Mass 


3.12 Irish 


.40 


Other sts._ 


2.84 French 


.46 Other sts._ 


2.73 Negroes .. 


•33 


French 


2.24 Germans__ 


• 35 Negroes _. 


2.16 Mass 


.26 


Negroes __ 


2.16 Negroes __ 


.33 Irish 


2. II French 


.26 


Mass. 


2.09 Other sts. _ 


.28 French 


1.74 Scotch 


.205 


Scotch 


1. 91 English 


.27 English... 


1.73 German __ 


.204 


English __ 


1.89 Mass 


.25 Scotch 


1.72 English... 


.203 


German __ 


1.85 Scotch 


.20 German .. 


1.37 Other sts.. 


.iS 


Norwegian 


1.29 Norwegian 


.19 Brit. Amer. 


I. II Brit. Amer. 


.10 


Brit. Amer. 


1.04 Brit. Amer. 


.17 Italians 


.54 Italians .. 


•05 


Swedish __ 


.98 Swedish _. 


•15 






Portuguese 


.97 Portuguese 


.14 






Italians 


.66 Rus.&Pol. 


.11 






RUS.& Pol. 


.48 Italians 


.09 







It might be supposed that a larger proportion of defec- 
tives would be found in a stationary population than in 
a migratory one ; but two foreign nationalities, the Irish 
and the French, show larger percentages than natives of 
Massachusetts, and Americans who have migrated to 

' Vol. Ill, pt. 3. 



425] Crime 119 

Massachusetts from other states show a larger percent- 
age than natives of Massachusetts. The Negroes have a 
slightly larger percentage of defectives than the native 
white population. Aside from the Irish and French 
above mentioned, the Scotch and the English have the 
largest proportions of the foreign born, while the Italians 
and the Jews have the smallest. The Portuguese, 
Swedes, and British Americans have relatively small 
numbers among the defectives. The order of nationali- 
ties for the insane alone is about the same as that for all 
the defectives together, except that the Americans show 
a smaller and the Germans a larger comparative number. 
Estimated according to parent nativity, natives of 
Massachusetts head the list, and the Irish and the 
French fall below the native population, showing that 
the second generation of these nationalities have fewer 
defectives than the native stock. With the insane 
alone, however, the Irish again come to the front, show- 
ing that insanity is exceptionally prevalent with the 
second as well as with the first generation of the Irish. 
Americans from other states fall well to the foot of the 
list. A large proportion of defectives for natives of 
Massachusetts is to be expected, and the proportion for 
the natives of other states seems to be raised on account 
of the large number of defectives from adjacent states 
who come to Boston for medical treatment. This is 
shown by the class of defectives among the natives 
from other states. The number having chronic diseases 
is especially large, as is also the number of the blind, 
and both these classes come chiefly from the New Eng- 
land states. In addition to the blind who would of their 
own accord come to Boston for treatment or for support, 
some states have special arrangements for sending their 
blind to the Perkins Institute to be educated. For such 



I20 American Economic Associatio7i [426 

classes as the epileptic, the insane, and the idiotic, who 
would be cared for ordinarily by their native states, the 
proportion for other states is not large. Small percent- 
ages for the British Americans and Italians might be 
expected, as pioneer and temporary immigrants would 
naturally be of good physique. 

In comparing the various forms of degeneracy, an 
evident parallelism exists in the extent of the depend- 
ent, delinquent, and defective classes, and also in the 
rate of mortality. The Irish exemplify this parallelism 
in a remarkable degree. A racial weakness is shown, 
first, by an exceptionally high death rate, and secondly, 
by a large amount of pauperism and excess of misde- 
meanors resulting from a lack of stamina. To these 
failings may be added a larger proportion of defectives, 
especially of insane, than in any other group. 

The Negroes probably have a larger dependent class 
than any other ethnic group, though the evidence in the 
case of pauperism is not so striking. The semi-de- 
pendent class among the Negroes is large ; and although 
this might easily be attributed to other causes than de- 
generacy, the evidence from mortality and that from 
the delinquent and defective classes is overwhelming 
proof of the weakness of the Negro race. 

That a considerable number of degenerates exists 
among the English and Scotch is evident from the 
criminal and pauper statistics. And although the death 
rate of these nationalities is not so significant, it is 
higher than that of most of the foreign nationalities. 
The proportion of defectives also is in most cases 
among the largest of any of the foreign groups. 

The Germans and the Jews, on the other hand, show 
their racial vigor by their low rate of mortality and 
also by the small numbers of their paupers and 



427] Crime 121 

criminals. The Germans, however, have a large pro- 
portion of defectives, especially of the insane, bnt the 
Jews are as free from insanity as they are from crime. 

The Americans and the British Americans hold a 
position abont midway between the two extremes in all 
these characteristics excepting in the number of de- 
fectives. For reasons already given the number of de- 
fectives is comparatively large for the native population 
and small for the British Americans. 

The Italians are responsible for a considerable amount 
of serious crime which shows the existence of indi- 
vidual anti-social tendencies, but the form of delinquency 
which indicates racial degeneracy has developed very 
little thus far. They have not as yet a large class of 
dependents and defectives. The high rate of infant 
mortality among the Italians, however, indicates small 
physical stability ; and there is every reason to believe 
that the Italians, if allowed to continue their present 
mode of life, will develop a large number of delinquents 
and dependents and will form extensive permanent 
slums. 



CHAPTER VIII 

NATURALIZATION 

From these personal characteristics of the various 
ethnic groups we pass to an inquiry concerning their 
assimilative tendencies. Under the head of naturaliza- 
tion I wish to say something, first, concerning the tend- 
ency of foreign nationalities to become American 
citizens, and secondly, concerning the exercise of the 
franchise. Although any foreigner can become natural- 
ized after five years' residence, he can exercise the fran- 
chise in Massachusetts only provided he can read and 
write the English language. Naturalization and the 
use of the franchise in the United States do not neces- 
sarily signify a great amount of patriotism, and yet they 
are rough indications of the possibility of citizenship 
and the desire for it. To show the relative tendencies 
of the various nationalities to become naturalized. Table 
XXX has been prepared, showing the proportions of the 
most important nationalities who are not aliens. In 
1900 those who had taken out their first papers were in- 

TABI.E XXX. — Proportionate Number of Natdrawzed For- 
eigners BY Place of Birth for 1885 and 1900. 

1885 1900 

Nationality Per Cent Natiotiality Per Cent 

Holland 68.57 Germany 85.20 

Ireland 67.07 Holland 83.69 

Germany 66.84 Ireland 83.22 

Switzerland 62.50 Scotland 78.14 

England 54-55 Switzerland 76.47 

France 53.88 England 75.05 

Scotland 50.30 Sweden 72.49 

Canada (English) 46.91 Norway 72.17 

Russia and Poland 46.30 France 7i 93 

Sweden 39-71 Austria 66.04 

Canada (French) 39-33 Canada (English) 65.38 

Norway 37-50 Russia and Poland 58.61 

Austria 34-39 Canada (French) 57-67 

Portugal 20.30 Portugal 50.26 

Italy 16.48 Italy 36.41 



429] Nahiralization 123 

eluded with the naturalized. This is one reason for the 
larger percentages throughout the column for 1900 as 
compared with those for 1885. The percentages are 
obtained by dividing the number of naturalized males 
by the total number of males of voting age. 

Considering first the column for 1900, it will be seen 
that the Germans head the list and that the Dutch and 
the Irish are not far behind. The Scotch, Swiss, 
English, Scandinavians, and French all have moderately 
large proportions, while the more recently immigrating 
nationalities, excepting the Swedes, have the smallest 
proportions. Italy has much the smallest proportion 
of all. The chief differences between this order and 
that for 1885 are that in 1885 the Scandinavians were 
to be found with the other recently immigrating nation- 
alities, and that in 1885 the Germans ranked slightly 
below the Dutch and the Irish, and the Scotch were be- 
low the French. The same group of nationalities heads 
the list in both cases. Of the more important national- 
ities it may be said that the Germans rank ahead of the 
English-speaking nationalities, who rank second, the 
Irish being well to the front and the Canadians being 
considerably below the British. The Scandinavians, at 
least within recent years, have tended to equal the British 
in the proportions of persons naturalized. Of the re- 
cent immigrants, the Jews make a much better showing 
than the Italians, who rank far below any other nation- 
ality. 

Turning now to the question of the franchise itself. 
Table XXXI shows the proportion of voters for 1885 
and 1896. The periods are only roughly comparable. 
In the column for 1885 the legal voters are given as 
reported in the nineteenth annual report of the Massa- 
chusetts bureau of labor, and the percentages are ob- 



124 American Economic Association \A2P 

tained by dividing these figures by the number of males 
of the different nationalities as given in the census of 
1885. Since similar figures have not been issued by 
the bureau for the year 1895, use has been made of the 
names on the voting lists for the year 1896, according 
to the reports of the board of election commissioners. 
These would include not all the legal voters but only 
those who took the trouble to register, and consequently 
this list indicates not merely the naturalization but the 
active interest taken in political life. The percentages 
are found by dividing the registered voters by the num- 
ber of males as reported in the census for 1895. 

Table XXXI. — Ratios of Voters to Males for 1895 and 1896. 
1885" i8g6^ 

Nationality ^X' J^'mZ ^■"--'"^ "''ir'o'tZfof^^. 

Holland 119 64.3 Ireland 14,787 48.6 

Ireland 17,295 60.2 Germany 2,444 45.6 

Germany 2,820 58.4 Switzerland 83 45.6 

Switzerland 82 56.5 Holland 105 44.1 

France 189 44.8 Norway 228 41.9 

England 2,147 40-7 Austria 252 41.8 

Scotland 691 40.1 England 2,550 37.1 

British America _ 4,003 32.8 Scotland 871 35.3 

Norway 79 31.8 Sweden 751 33.5 

Sweden 311 31.4 British America. _ 5,470 29.5 

Russia 260 31.2 Russia 1,635 26.0 

Austria 61 27.6 France 128 24.9 

Portugal 85 16. 1 Portugal 80 13.5 

Italy 130 9.2 Italy 495 10.4 

Considering the figures for 1896, it will be seen that 
of the more important nationalities the Irish and the 
Germans are far ahead in the interest which they take 
in political life. The English, Scotch, Swedes, and 
British Americans have a moderately large number of 
voters. The more recent immigrants show thus far a 
small percentage of voters, although there are many 

' Compiled from the nineteenth annual report of the Massachusetts 
bureau of statistics of labor. 

^ Compiled from the report of the board of election commissioners 
for 1896. 



43 1] Nahiralization 125 

more among the Russian Jews than among the Portu- 
guese and the Italians. Comparing this table with that 
for 1885, it will be seen that the chief changes are with 
the less important nationalities. In 1885 the Dutch 
had a larger percentage than any other nationality, 
while the French had a much larger percentage than 
they have at the present time. The Scandinavians and 
the Austrians, on the other hand, have made gains since 
1885 in the numbers of their voters. And the Italians, 
although still at the foot of the list, show a larger per- 
centage of citizens than in 1885. 

These tables are presented because they represent the 
actual condition of affairs. But as five years' residence 
in this country and a knowledge of the English lan- 
guage are required for citizenship, it is evident that these 
tables are unfair towards the recent immigrants if con- 
clusions are to be drawn from them as to the relative ten- 
dency of the different nationalities to exercise the fran- 
chise. A comparison between the voters in the city at 
any given time and the number of males in the city five 
years previous would be fairer to all nationalities. Ac- 
cordingly an estimate ' has been made of the number of 
males in the city in 1891 for each nationality. This is 
given in the second column of Table XXXII, and the 
proportions which the voters of 1896 bear to these num- 
bers are given in the fifth column. 

The order of nationalities in Table XXXII differs 
from that in the previous table less than might be ex- 

' The figures for the Russians and the Italians are taken from the tene- 
ment house census of Boston for 189 1, as the figures seem to indicate 
that practical!}' all the Russians and Italians lived in rented tenements. 
The estimate for the other nationalities is not very exact, as males 
were not given in the census for 1890 by place of birth. An estimate is 
made, therefore, on the supposition that the proportion of males to 
the total population was the same for 1890 as for 1895. This would not 
be far out of the wav for the nationalities estimated. 



126 American Economic Association [432 

Table XXXII. — Voters by Place of Birth, Allowing for 
Five Years' Residence. 

Per Cent of No. of No. of Per Cent of 

Nationality Males., Males, Voters, Voters 1896 of 

i8g5 iSgi i8g6 Males i8gi 

Holland 54-09 204 105 51-47 

Ireland 4248 30.360 14,787 4875 

Germany 53- iS 5,568 2,644 47-48 

Norway 56.60 498 228 45-78 

Sweden 45.97 1,697 751 44.25 

Switzerland 5i-70 212 83 39-^5 

England 51.95 6,925 2,550 36.82 

Scotland 52.53 2,380 871 36.60 

British Anier 41-33 16,164 5,470 33-84 

France 52.18 468 128 27.35 

Portugal 48.80 3,466 80 17.16 

Italy 60.07 3,700 495 13.37 

pected. The changes to be noted are those for the 
Dutch, the Swedes, and the Russians. The Dutch here 
hold first place, having a much larger percentage than 
the Irish. The Russians and Swedes, who were in- 
creasing rapidly between 1890 and 1895, show a consid- 
erably larger percentage of voters according to this 
method of calculation, the Russians particularly show- 
ing a large difference. Here both rank ahead of the 
English and the Scotch. The Italians, who were in- 
creasing at the same time nearly as rapidly as the Jews, 
although they show a somewhat higher percentage in 
this table, do not leave their position at the foot of the 
list. The Swiss and the English show smaller percent- 
ages in this table than in the preceding one, as the num- 
bers of both these nationalities decreased somewhat be- 
tween 1890 and 1895. The Swiss show a relative de- 
crease also, falling from third to sixth on the list. The 
order in the last half of the table is the same as that in 
the preceding table. 

In so far as the actual pos.sibilities for active citizen- 
ship are to be considered, the second qualification for 
the franchise — literacy as regards English — need not be 



433] Naturalization 127 

discussed. The nationalities, to be sure, do not start on 
an equal basis in this matter. The Englishman is 
qualified at the start, while the Portuguese is not, and 
possibly can never attain the qualification. Although 
the Portuguese perhaps cannot be blamed for this lack 
and may make just as good a citizen in every other res- 
pect, still, in so far as it is desirable to have citizens 
who possess the necessary qualifications, ignorance of 
English is an objection. In drawing comparisons al- 
lowance should evidently be made for the qualification 
of a specified period of residence, as this is a mere 
question of time. It may be objected that a knowl- 
edge of the English language is also a question of time, 
and should be treated in the same way as the time qual- 
ification. This is true with regard to a speaking knowl- 
edge of the language, but for a reading and writing 
knowledge, such as the law requires, it is true only to a 
limited extent. An adult immigrant who is illiterate as 
regards his own language will almost certainly never be- 
come literate as to English, and many who have a slight 
knowledge of their own language will never learn to 
read and write English. Those who are better educated 
and wish to learn English will require some time to do 
it. In most cases, however, the five years allowed in the 
previous table for residence would be sufficient to enable 
the immigrants to acquire a knowledge of English. The 
above table, therefore, is a fair presentation of the rela- 
tive tendencies of the various nationalities to become 
active citizens. 

It would be interesting, hov^'ever, to ascertain the 

proportion of persons possessing the qualifications for 

the franchise who actually become voters, as that would 

.< more fairly the real interest shown by foreigners 

in political life. To bring out this point illiterates as 



128 Americayi Economic Association [434 

well as those who have been in this country less than five 
years should be deducted. The actual number of illiter- 
ate males in the several nationalities of Boston is not 
known, but there are two ways of calculating their num- 
bers approximately, both of which will be used. The 
first method, used in Table XXXIII, is based on the 
percentage of illiterates among the total immigrants to 
this country as given in the immigration reports for 
1900 and 1901. The first column corresponds to the 
percentage of illiterates given in Table V, at the begin- 
ning of this paper. The second column gives the num- 
ber of males for 1891 with those deducted who were 
illiterate as to their own language, and the last column 
gives the percentage which this number is of the voters 
of 1896. This table is evidently in favor of the Eng- 
lish-speaking immigrants, as not all non-English speak- 
ing foreigners who are literate as to their own language 
will learn English even after five years. 

Table XXXIII. — Voters by Pi,ace of Birth, ali^owing for 
Five Years' Residence and for Ih,iteracy. 

Per Cent 

Estimated Registered of Voters 

Nation- Per Cent of Literate Voters, i8g6 of 

ality Illiterates Males, i8gi 1896 Literate 

Males, i8gi 

Holland 6.48 191 105 54-97 

Ireland 3.12 29,413 14,787 50.23 

Germany 3.98 5,346 2,644 49.45 

Hebrew 17.80 3,543 1,635 46.14 

Scandinavia .62 2,181 979 44.84 

England 1.63 6,812 2,550 37.43 

Scotland 1.35 2,348 871 37. 09 

Portugal 46.19 251 80 31.87 

France 3.49 452 128 28.32 

Italy 43.15 2,103 495 23.53 

The difference in the order of nationalities between 
this table and the preceding one is slight. Notwith- 
standing the large percentages deducted for Italy and 
Portugal, the position of nationalities is essentially the 
same as in the preceding table, where no allowance was 



435] Naturalization 129 

made for illiteracy. Norway and Sweden have been 
combined in this table, and British America and Switzer- 
land have been omitted. The only difference in order 
between this table and the previous one is that Portugal 
is now above instead of below France, and the Jews are 
ahead of the Scandinavians. The deduction of total 
illiterates is therefore of no special significance. 

The second method of deducting illiterates is of more 
interest, as it includes all persons illiterate as to Eng- 
lish. In the nineteenth report of the Massachusetts 
bureau of labor' the illiterate aliens for the state are 
given by place of birth. The percentage of illiterates 
to total males is calculated for 1885 and applied to 
the males for 1891, giving the rough estimate of the 
literate males for 1891 shown in the second column. 
The percentage of literate males of 1891 who became 
voters in 1896 is given in the last column. It will be 
noticed that the percentage of illiterates among the 
English-speaking immigrants was not the same in 1885 
as it is among the immigrants at the present time. 

Table XXXIV. — Voters by Place of Birth, allowing for Five 
Years' Residence and for Illiteracy as to English. 

Per Cent of Per Cent of 

\T„f^^„r,t^u, Illiterate Estimated Literate 

Nationality Males in Literate Males, iSgr, 

State, /8Sj Males, i8gi Voters in i8g6 

Sweden 29.54 1,196 62.03 

Norway 20.76 395 57.72 

Germany 15-97 4,678 56.52 

Russia 32.06 2,929 55.82 

Ireland 12.17 26,665 55-45 

Holland 5.43 193 54.40 

Switzerland 10.92 189 43-91 

England 2.02 6,786 37-57 

Scotland 1.04 2,355 36.98 

Portugal 52.49 222 36.03 

British America 3.19 15,649 34 95 

France 17.26 388 32.98 

Italy 57.85 1,560 31.73 

* Nineteenth annual report of the Massachusetts bureau of statistics 
of labor, p. 216. 

9 



130 A7nertcan Economic Association [436 

although the test of 1885 is more applicable to present 
voters than is the standard of recent immigrants. 

This method of making illiteracy as to English the 
basis of comparison brings out a few significant changes, 
the most important of which are the large gains for 
Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Russia, which rank 
them above Ireland and Holland. British America 
takes a lower rank in this table than it did in the pre- 
ceding table. The Portuguese, French, and Italians 
continue their small proportions of voters. 

It must not be supposed that the percentages in the last 
table show the simple individual tendencies of immi- 
grants to interest themselves in political life ; the game 
of politics is not so simple. Nor is the interest of all 
naturalized immigrants exercising the franchise of the 
same intensity or even of the same kind ; the franchise 
is used from a variety of motives. The Irish and the 
Germans on the whole make as good a showing in poli- 
tics as any nationality. They lead all others in the abso- 
lute number of naturalized voters as well as in the propor- 
tionate number ; and when allowances are made for 
legal requirements they show high, though not the 
highest, proportions. The Germans, however, lead in 
politics to a much less extent than the Irish. They 
use the franchise with apparent interest and intelligence, 
for they do not vote as a unit. Very few Germans, 
however, hold city appointments, and they do not seem 
to work for them. The Irish, on the other hand, are 
the great political organizers, and the rank and file of 
the Irish voters are the most easily organized of all 
nationalities. People work together when they ardently 
desire the same end. The politically organized Irish 
hope for some material recognition of services, and in 
fact the number of voters of Irish descent holding some 



437] Naturalization 131 

municipal position is equalled only by the number of 
unsatisfied aspirants for such positions. The desirable 
prizes range all the way from administrative offices to 
the driving of carts, and the possessor of any of them 
holds a social position distinctly superior to that of his 
comrade. The Irish are political organizers of other 
nationalities beside their own. Their most friendly inter- 
course with the more recently immigrating nationalities 
is brought about through political interest. 

Though the Scandinavians cannot muster a very large 
number of voters, their relative position is high, as they 
are among the most intelligent immigrants. When al- 
lowance is made for those who have not learned the En- 
glish language, the Scandinavians rank ahead of all 
other nationalities. English-speaking immigrants show 
a smaller interest in politics than might be expected, 
considering the similarity in institutions. At best they 
show only a medium sized percentage of voters ; and 
when allowance is made for the illiteracy of non-En- 
glish speaking immigrants, the relative strength of the 
English-speaking vote is still less. The proportion of 
British Americans entering into politics is smaller than 
that of the British, a result probably largely due to the 
less permanent character of that immigration. Among 
all English subjects excepting the Irish there is very 
commonly a strong dislike to giving up allegiance to the 
mother country. It seems to them like a descent in the 
political scale. Similarity of institutions between the 
two countries causes unwelcome comparisons which are 
not thought of between countries possessing dissimilar 
institutions. 

Of the more recently immigrating nationalities, the 
Russian Jews make an excellent showing. If allowance 
is made for their illiteracy and for the short period of 



132 American Economic Association [438 

their residence, the Jews rank among the leaders. This 
is one of the ways in which the Jews may conform with- 
out scruples of conscience, and they enjoy taking advan- 
tage of it. The progress of the Jews in this line is 
largely due to their own efforts. Non-partisan educa- 
tional clubs are formed in which the duties of free citi- 
zenship are taught and the desirability of naturalization 
is urged upon all, much to the disgust of some of the 
local politicians, who see no object in naturalizing a 
man unless you can use him afterwards. Though the 
Jews take a good deal of interest in politics their idea of 
the end to be gained is narrow. Immediate business 
interests determine to a great extent their voting. They 
are forever demanding city ordinances granting this or 
that concession to their business interests, and their 
votes are cast for the candidate who promises to secure 
them. It is an indirect way of selling their votes to the 
highest bidder. The Jews are not wedded to any party 
or faction, and the handling of their vote is a strain on 
the sagacity of even an Irish politician. Voting inde- 
pendently even for selfish interests is, however, an ad- 
vance over blind loyalty to a selfish leader. Voting for 
the general welfare is a position to which few natural- 
ized voters can attain. 

The Italians without doubt take the least interest in 
politics of any nationality. They are at the foot of the 
list by every mode of calculation. Even after deduct- 
ing more than half of the total number of males on the 
single ground of illiteracy, they still show the smallest 
percentage of voters. Migration of single men helps to 
break up organized political work among the Italians, 
but the chief reason is that the Italians themselves have 
developed little interest in politics, and Irish politicians 
have no great influence over them. There are three 



439] Naturalization 133 

or four Italian political leaders in Boston, and one man 
of Italian parentage is a member of the city council. 
The leaders give the general direction to the Italian 
votes, the average Italian voter having little understand- 
ing of what he is doing. In national politics the Italians 
are apt to vote the Republican ticket, because, it is said, 
the word republican signifies something very dear to the 
Italian heart. This feeling may be best expressed in 
the words of a New York Italian : " There are two kinds 
of people that rule here. Republicans and Democrats. 
I went to a Republican meeting and the man said that 
the Republicans want a republic and the Democrats are 
against it. He said that Democrats are for a king whose 
name is Bryan and who is an Irishman. There are 
some good Irishmen ; but many of them insult Italians. 
They call us 'dagoes.' So I will be a Republican. I 
like this country now and I don't see why we should 
have a king. Garibaldi didn't want a king, and he was 
the greatest man that ever lived." ' In local matters, 
however, the situation at the North End of Boston re- 
quires him to vote for one or another leader in the 
Democratic party. Within the last few years naturali- 
zation has gone on rapidly among the Italians, and it is 
possible that they would now make a somewhat better 
relative showing than in 1896. 

The Portuguese, owing to their long residence in the 
city, are somewhat more eligible for registration than 
the Italians; but owing to the small number of voters 
they have attracted little attention from political leaders. 
The Portuguese political sagacity is not above that of 
the Italian. The Negroes might also be mentioned 
here as showing a low stage of political development. 

^Rocco Coresca, The biography of a boot- black, Independent, De- 
cember 4, 1902. 



134 Americixn Econoinic Association [440 

Negroes do not organize readily, and individually they 
are not interested in politics. Consequently they do not 
work as a unit. If they could work together for a 
definite end it would increase their solidarity and raise 
their social standing. As it is, however, poor political 
material escapes use through lack of efficient leadership. 
The figures show that northern Europeans enter poli- 
tics much more freely than southern Europeans. It is 
possible that previous ideas of individual freedom and 
former political training help to strengthen political 
activity in this country, although the record of the Rus- 
sians and the Germans, as against those of the British 
and the British Americans, seems to show that previous 
training has comparatively little influence in the matter. 
General intelligence seems to be a much more potent 
factor, though in addition to this it should be remem- 
bered that the formation of definite groups with com- 
mon interests, though hindering social assimilation, in- 
creases the possibility of political manipulation. Of two 
nationalities of the same intelligence, the one which 
forms the more isolated group can be the better directed. 
Probably the dispersion of the British and the British 
Americans is one thing that makes their political activ- 
ity less important. The political activity of an unas- 
similated group may therefore be greater than that of 
one in a more advanced state of assimilation, though 
the activity of the latter is more normal. Of those 
groups which are only slightly assimilated, it is fortun- 
ate that the least intelligent have the smallest influence 
in political life. 



CHAPTER IX 

INTERMARRIAGE 

We come now to the final important inquiry in the 
question of assimilation of races — that of the inter- 
mixture of nationalities. Only through the intermin- 
gling of the various types can there be formed a homo- 
geneous type which will make a definite step in pro- 
gress. As isolation is the one condition under which a 
variation may be so preserved as to form a new type, so 
free association, which makes imitation possible, oblit- 
erates differences and tends to form a homogeneous 
whole. This homogeneity, or " social solidarity," is 
necessary before any real benefit can be derived either 
from the increase in numbers which immigration gives 
to the mass of the population or from the useful quali- 
ties which foreign peoples may bring us. Variations 
are desirable, but they will spread only so far as the 
population is sufficiently homogeneous to imitate them. 
So long as a nationality remains a compact body isolated 
from others and unable to communicate with them, its 
attachment to the social body is merely mechanical and 
not organic. It influences our social life much as a 
foreign nation influences it. Individuals, it is true, may 
profit financially by the presence of cheap foreign labor- 
ers ; but the permanent benefit to society lies in the as- 
similation of each ethnic element so that various dis- 
similar traits and characters will come into contact. 
And though at first the strongest will seem to survive, 
there is good reason to believe that in a growing society 
like our own in the long run the most useful traits will 
be adopted if they are not too soon destroyed. At any 



136 American Eco7iomic Associatio7i [442 

rate, increased numbers, if united into a compact, 
healthy society, will bring greater probabilities of future 
progress. 

To measure the assimilation of social factors and the 
resulting degree of homogeneity is a difficult task. Any 
estimate must be largely the result of the observation of 
different tendencies. The best statistical data for as- 
sociation is that of the intermarriage of nationalities. 
Association may take place where there is little or no 
intermarriage, but intermarriage signifies the beginning 
of a social intercourse more permanent than business 
association is likely to be. The only complete statistics 
for intermarriage are those which show the number of 
native born persons having mixed parentage, as given 
in the census of 1895. This is, of course, only a rough 
index to intermarriage. It probably includes the 
majority of marriages, though the number of births re- 
sulting from the different marriages would vary. So 
even with large numbers of births the exact propor- 
tion of marriages which have taken place may not be 
shown. The figures, however, certainly throw con- 
siderable light upon the subject. 

The accompanying table gives the information in a 
form permitting a comparison of the nationalities. The 
first column of the table gives the actual number of births 
resulting from marriages between the different nationali- 
ties ; the second column gives the number of nationali- 
ties with which marriages have been made ; the 
third column shows the number of persons in the 
given nationality to each birth of mixed parentage. 
For example, there were 236 persons born of mixed 
parentage one of whose parents was Italian, and there 
were 7,900 Italians in the city. This makes one birth 



443] Intermarriage 137 

Tabi,e XXXV. — Proportionate Number of Intermarriages 
AMONG THE Various Nationalities according to Births, 
1895. 

Mr /v ^«'f^^ NatTonalities ^^^f"^ 

Nattonahty of rvith whom r, J%- ,. 

Italy 236 . 2 33.47 

Russia 604 7 19.83 

United States 39,502 18^ 8.01^ 

Sweden 748 8 6.54 

West Indies 47 I 6.13 

Portugal 204 2 5.95 

Poland 214 4 5.70 

Norway 205 3 4.69 

Austria 248 3 4.69 

Denmark 189 4 3.08 

Ireland 25,957 13 2.75 

Spain 34 I 2.65 

British America 18,672 7 2.21 

Germany 5,083 12 2.14 

Canada (French) . 918 5 2.00 

Switzerland 195 2 1.80 

Holland 327 4 1.34 

Great Britain 13,901 10 1.32 

France 995 6 .99 

to every 33.47 Italians. It will be seen that there is a 
steady scale of descent from the more recently immi- 
grating nationalities, the Italians and the Jews, who 
have intermarried comparatively little, to the French, 
among whom there are more persons born of mixed 
parentage than there are of French birth in the city. 
Of the more important nationalities, the British show 
the largest amount of association, the Germans next, 
and then the British Americans and the Irish. The 
Germans have intermarried with other nationalities to a 
remarkable extent considering the fact that they speak 
a foreign tongue ; still a part of their intermarriages, as 
well as those of the Russians and the Poles, may be 
simply the marriage of Jews born in different countries. 
The English-speaking nationalities are apt to intermarry 

' Massachusetts 17, other states 11. 
2 Massachusetts 9.09, other states 5.58. 



138 American Economic Association [444 

more than others because they associate more readily 
with one another. Difference of language, however, is 
not always a barrier to marriage. Occasionally a man 
and woman will marry when neither understands the 
language of the other. 

The number of nationalities with which each racial 
group has entered into marriage relations is of interest. 
Americans have intermarried with 18 other nationali- 
ties. This does not necessarily mean " old " Americans, 
for it includes cases in which the second generation of 
foreigners — that is, natives of foreign parentage — have 
married foreigners of the same nationality. After the 
Americans come the Irish, Germans, and British, who 
have intermarried with 13, 12, and 10 other nationali- 
ties respectively. The Italians and Portuguese have each 
formed alliances with only two other nationalities. The 
Russians have intermarried with 7 others, although, as 
has already been said, these are probably for the most 
part of the Jewish race. 

The question of the nationalities with which the 
srreatest number of alliances have been made can be 
readily seen from the following more elaborate table 
giving the proportionate number of births resulting 
from marriages with each of the nationalities with which 
alliances have been made. The figures are supposed to 
show those nationalities with which each nationality 
tends to intermarry most frequently. This, however, is 
difficult to do with accuracy, owing to the great differ- 
ence in the size of the groups. It is evident that a very 
small group could intermarry quite generally with a 
large group like the Americans or Irish and still show a 
small percentage of marriages provided the numbers of 
both groups were considered in the comparison. The 



445] Intermarriage 139 

only satisfactory method of estimating the relative 
amount of intermarriage is to make the smallest nation- 
ality in every case the basis. The number of the small- 
est group evidently forms the limit of intermarriage be- 
tween any two groups. The table should be read there- 
fore as follows : In the first case given there was one 
birth from mixed French and German parentage to 
every 4.2 persons of French birth, the French group 
being smaller than the German. The small figures, 
therefore, show the greater tendency towards intermar- 
riage. The following list of nationalities arranged ac- 
cording to size will make it evident at a glance which 
nationality was used as the base : Massachusetts, Ire- 
land, other states, British America, Great Britain, Russia, 
Germany, Italy, Sweden, Canada (French), Poland, Portu- 
ugal, Austria, France. The nationalities are arranged 
in the order of the relative amount of intermarriage 
with other nationalities. It will be found that nearly 
all the nationalities intermarry to a considerable extent 
with natives of Massachusetts, but intermarriage with 
natives of other states is a better indication of assimila- 
tion with the American stock. 

TABI.E XXXVI. — Proportionate Number of Intermarriages 

AMONG THE Various Nationawties, according to Births, 

1895, in Detail.' 

' Compiled from the Massachusetts state census for 1S95. 

I. 2. 3. 

France with Great Britain with Canada {Fr.) with 

Germany 4.2 Holland 2.8 Massachusetts 6.4 

Massachusetts. 4.2 Massachusetts 4.5 Other states__ 7.3 

Ireland 5.2 Ireland 4.5 Ireland 12.3 

Other states 7.2 Other states__ 7.1 British Amer. 13.6 

Great Britain.. 8.6 British Amer. 8.0 Great Britain. 24.5 

British Amer. .13.9 France 8.6 France 54.7 

Canada (Fr.) ..54. 7 Canada (Fr.) 24.5 

Germany 28.4 

Poland 50.0 

Sweden 61.9 

Russia 1 21.0 



140 



American Economic Association 



[446 



4-. 
Germany with 

Switzerland _. 2.5 

France 4.2 

Massachusetts. 5.6 

Austria 7.5 

Holland 9.5 

Other states ii.i 

Poland 12.7 

Ireland 19.0 

Denmark 25.3 

Great Britain __28.4 

British Atner. -42.7 

Russia 55.3 

Sweden 63.5 



5- 
British America with 

Massachusetts 5.9 

Great Britain. 8.0 

Ireland 9.3 

Other states __ lo.o 

Canada (Fr. )- 13.6 

France 13.9 

Germany 42.7 

Sweden ii3-7 



6. 
Ireland with 

Great Britain __ 4.5 

France 5.2 

Massachusetts. 5.7 
British Atner. _ 9.3 

Denmark 10.6 

Holland 11.3 

Canada (Fr. )..I2.3 

Germany 19.0 

Other states 19.2 

Norway 21.8 

Portugal 23.8 

Sweden 25.4 

Italy 131. 6 

Russia 428.2 



Austria with 

Germany 7.5 

Russia 20.8 

Massachusetts 25.0 



Sweden with 

Norway 10.2 

Other states.- 13.6 

Denmark 17.6 

Ireland 25.4 

Massachusetts 27.0 
Great Britain. 61.9 

Germany 63.5 

British Amer. 113. 7 
Russia 212.6 



8. 
Poland with 

Germany 12.7 

Other states.. 28.4 

Massachusetts 40.7 

Great Britain _ 50.9 

Russia 58.1 

II. 
Massachusetts with 

Spain 2.6 

Other states.. 3.2 

France 4.2 

Great Britain. 4.5 

Germany 5.6 

Ireland 5.7 

British Amer. 5.9 

Switzerland . 6.2 

Canada (Fr. )_ 6.4 

Holland 7.3 

Denmark 7.4 

Portugal 8.0 

Norway 14.3 

Austria 25.0 

Sweden 27.0 

Poland 40.7 

Italy 44.9 

Russia 121. o 

13. 14- 

Russia with Italy with 

Austria 20.8 Massachusetts 44.9 

Germany 55.3 Ireland 131. 6 

Poland 58.1 

Great Britain. 1 21.0 
Massachusetts 1 2 1 .0 
Other states.. 1 21.0 

Sweden 212.6 

Ireland 428.2 

The French have shown the greatest tendency to 
intermarry, and it has been most commonly with Ger- 



Portugal ■m\\h. 
Massachu setts 8.0 
Ireland 23.8 



12. 

Other states with 

Massachusetts 3.0 

West Indies.. 6.1 

Great Britain. 7.1 

France 7.2 

Canada (Fr. ) 7.3 

British Amer. 10. o 

Germany ii.i 

Sweden 13.6 

Holland 15.7 

Ireland 19.2 

Poland 28.4 

Russia 121. o 



447] Intermarriage 141 

mans and with natives of Massachusetts, although they 
have intermarried with Americans from other states than 
Massachusetts to a considerable extent, and also with 
the Irish and the British, and to a less extent with the 
English and French Canadians. The French have been 
in this country for a considerable time and are easily 
assimilated ; they have intermarried to a considerable 
extent with the older nationalities, but little, if at all, 
with more recent immigrants. 

Though it is well known that the English are ex- 
ceedingly persistent in assimilating other nationalities, 
they seem to have shown an unexpected friendliness for 
the Dutch ; but this large relative proportion represents 
small actual numbers. After the Dutch come the En- 
glish-speaking nationalities — Americans, Irish, and Brit- 
ish Americans. With non-English speaking nationali- 
ties aside from the French the British have formed 
comparatively few unions. The intermarriage of the 
English with both Poles and Russians indicates the 
presence of English Jews. 

The French Canadians have intermarried mostly with 
the Americans ; after that, as might be expected, with 
the Irish and with the English Canadians, and then to 
a less extent with the British and the French. The 
small number of alliances between the French and the 
French Canadians shows the small attraction between 
the two peoples, notwithstanding the similarity of 
tongue. 

The Germans have intermarried extensively and with 
a large number of nationalities ; their unions, however, 
with the Swiss, with natives of Massachusetts, with the 
Austrians, and with the Dutch may all show a similarity 
of race, and their unions with the Russians and the 
Poles are probably simply Jewish marriages. Never- 



142 Ainerican Economic Association [448 

theless all these marriages show a tendency to extend 
the limits of association. The Germans have also mar- 
ried to a considerable extent with Americans outside of 
Massachusetts and with the Irish, and to a less extent 
with the Danes, British, British Americans, and Swedes. 

The British Americans have followed almost exactly 
the same lines of association as immigrants from the 
mother country, except that they have not devoted their 
hearts to the assimilation of the Dutch. 

The extent of Irish association is shown by their inter- 
marriage with the more recently immigrating nationali- 
ties and also by intermarriage with a number of minor 
peoples — French, Danes, Dutch, Norwegians, and Portu- 
guese. Of the more important nationalities, the Irish 
have intermarried to the greatest extent with the British, 
with natives of Massachusetts, and with the British 
Americans ; then with the Germans and with the 
Americans outside of Massachusetts. 

To what extent the Austrians and Poles have married 
outside the Jewish faith cannot be ascertained from the 
figures. The Germans, Russians, and natives of Massa- 
chusetts, with whom the Austrians have formed alli- 
ances, may all be Jews. The Poles have intermarried 
to some extent with Americans from outside of Massa- 
chusetts and with the British, but not all the Poles 
are Jews. The census figures show intermarriage of 
the Portuguese with only the native born and the Irish, 
but they have since formed a few unions with the 
Italians. 

The Swedes have naturally intermarried freely with 
the Norwegians and the Danes, and also to a considerable 
extent with the Americans and the Irish. A moderate 
amount of association appears with the British and the 



449] Intermarriage 143 

Germans, and an insignificant amonnt with the British 
Americans and the Russians. 

Americans from outside of Massachusetts have 
naturally intermarried most freely with the natives of 
Massachusetts. Then come the West Indian Islanders, 
showing the intermarriage of the Negro element. Na- 
tives of states other than Massachusetts have inter- 
married to about the same relative degree with the 
British, French, and French Canadians, and next to 
them with the British Americans and the Germans 
They have formed alliances with the Irish much less 
extensively, but with the Swedes more extensively than 
most foreigners. 

Intermarriage between natives of Massachusetts and 
foreign groups is very different from that between other 
Americans and foreigners. The few marriages between 
the Spanish and the natives of Massachusetts make 
their proportion relatively the highest. After them 
come the marriages with Americans outside of Massa- 
chusetts. The rate of intermarriage with the French 
and Germans and with the English-speaking foreign 
born is high. The comparatively high rate of marriage 
with nearly all the foreign born must indicate marriage 
between the first and second generations of the same 
foreign group. The amount of intermarriage is smallest 
with those nationalities most recently immigrating. 

The Russians have intermarried freely with nation- 
alities distinctively Jewish — the Austrians, Germans, and 
Poles — and with the British and the Americans. Some of 
these marriages, however, as well as the marriages with 
the Swedes and the Irish doubtless show non-Jewish 
alliances. 

The Italians have thus far formed few unions with 
persons outside their own race. Aside from the 



144 American Eco7iomic Association [450 

marriages with natives of Massachusetts, those with the 
Irish have been most frequent. 

Intermarriages of foreign groups depend upon the 
relative numbers of the sexes in each group as well as 
upon the amount of association. Men seek wives out- 
side their national group when within it there is a 
scarcity of women. From the standpoint of a particular 
nationality immigrating to this country, men marry into 
other groups much sooner than women ; that is, a 
nationality recently immigrating will begin to form 
marriage unions with the older nationalities from the 
initiative of the men of the newer nationality. In the 
case of five nationalities — the Italians, Poles, Portuguese, 
Spaniards, and West Indians — only men had married 
into other groups. No men from other groups had 
chosen wives out of these five groups ; there are no cases 
in which the women have married into other groups 
when the men of their group have not made outside 
marriages. But in the case of the Americans, Irish, 
and British Americans, many more women than men 
have married into other groups ; and these are the nation- 
alities in which the women greatly exceed the men. 

The normal course of the situation in this line seems 
to be that the older nationalities intermarry most with 
other groups without much regard to the language of 
the nationality. The Irish, however, are a slight excep- 
tion here, as they are the oldest of the foreign groups 
and have formed fewer outside unions than most of the 
other older nationalities. As for the particular nation- 
alities with whom alliances are made, the older ones 
intermarry to the greatest extent with one another, some 
racial or linguistic attraction being usually evident here ; 
and the newer nationalities begin by forming unions 
with the older in which the women predominate. 



45 1 ] I^ tervta rriage 145 

The Jews are an exception to the general rule in that 
religion is a more powerful factor than race in prevent- 
ing marriages outside the group. Marriages between 
Jews and gentiles have become frequent enough so that 
they are not a shock to the Hebrew religious sense, though 
they are a sufficient novelty to cause considerable gossip. 
A Jewish woman seldomly marries a gentile : but occa- 
sionally Jewish young men marry gentile women ; and in 
such cases, unless the man has practically abandoned 
the Jewish faith, the women are considered converts to 
Judaism. 

A color line also is a more than ordinary barrier to 
intermarriage. Marriages between Negroes and whites 
are not infrequent, but when they occur it is the Negro 
man who marries the white woman ; very few Negresses 
are married to white men. It is usually the more pro- 
gressive Negroes who obtain white wives. When a 
professional man or a good wage-earner marries a white 
woman, the marriage may be happy enough in itself ; 
but an undesirable social isolation results, for social 
intercourse with the whites is very limited, and the 
educated set of Negroes is small, even if a white woman 
could feel at home in it. 

Marriage not infrequently occurs also between China- 
men and white women, notwithstanding the great social 
difference between them. Between 1885 and 1892 forty 
marriages were performed, mostly by justices of the 
peace, between Chinese or Japanese men and white 
women.' Nearly all the women were Americans; 14 
were born in Boston, 21 in the United States outside of 
Boston, 4 in British America, and i in Ireland. ]\Iost 
of them were domestic servants or seamstresses of the 
type that frequent Chinese or Turkish restaurants. An 

'See report of city registry department for 1S93. 
10 



146 American Economic Association [452 

occasional report of the escape of one of these white 
wives seems to indicate that they find permanent life in 
Chinatown irksome. Such marriages are less common 
than they were, and they cannot be regarded as any in- 
dication of Chinese assimilation. 

The social assimilation of the various nationalities 
through intermarriage does not follow very closely the 
political assimilation. The causes of the two phenom- 
ena are not the same ; desire for assimilation may not be 
the immediate motive for either, but both intermar- 
riage and naturalization of foreigners favor assimilation, 
and are partial measures of it. The Dutch, Germans, 
Irish, and Swiss show a considerable tendency to both 
social and political assimilation. The Italians and 
Portuguese assimilate slowly in either way. The Jews 
show considerable tendency towards political assimila- 
tion and a small tendency towards social assimilation, 
while the French assimilate socially with readiness but 
show little political activity. The English-speaking 
nationalities assimilate socially with greater readiness 
than they do politically. 

Though a foreign language does not appear to be a 
great deterrent from intermarriage with another nation- 
ality, it is of course a considerable obstacle to the adop- 
tion of American life. Though some nationalities learn 
English much more readily than others, all are for a 
time kept from reading American newspapers and from 
entering in other ways into the national thought. Im- 
migrants speaking a foreign tongue are also much more 
likely to form societies themselves, and these help to 
preserve the national identity. 

One of the strongest forces against complete assimila- 
tion is the persistence of the national religion, and dif- 
ference of language helps to keep up this foreign insti- 



453] Intermarriage 147 

tutioii. Since religious organization offers the greatest 
resistance to change, the assimilative process has to take 
place first and the religious institution is modified after- 
wards. The British Americans and the English are the 
only nationalities which require no definite national reli- 
gious organization. Forty-two Roman Catholic churches 
in the city are Irish organizations, though the audiences 
are not exclusively Irish, and there is no desire to keep 
them so. A Scotch Presbyterian church in the city is 
national to about the same degree as the Irish churches. 
The Germans have 5 Protestant churches and i Catho- 
lic church. The Italians have 2 Catholic churches and 
I Protestant mission. The Swedes have 6 Protestant 
churches and 4 missions. The Norwegians have 2 
Protestant churches and i mission. The French have 
I Protestant and i Catholic church. The Portugese 
have I Catholic church. The Poles have i Catholic 
church. The Danes have i church. The Armenians 
have a chapel for general meetings. The Welsh have 
occasional services of their own. 

Beside these separate Christian churches, the Jews 
have 21 regular synagogues besides numerous small 
places of meeting.' These differ, however, from the 
churches above mentioned in being the result of a dif- 
ferent religion and not simply the result of differences 
of race and language ; this difference in religion, more- 
over, is the bulwark of the Jewish separateness. The 
influence of American environment upon the Jewish re- 
ligion is shown by the growth of the reformed element, 
which differs from the orthodox in its interpretation of 
the Talmud and the importance which it attaches to the 
interpretation of its laws. Two of the synagogues are 

^ See Boston directory, 1901, p. 3151 ; and Directory of charities, 
p. 222, in regard to the churches of the different nationalities. 



148 American Ecoyioniic Association [454 

reformed and are composed largely of the older German 
element. The more recent Russian immigrants are the 
most orthodox, yet even among them there is a noticeably 
growing laxity in the observance of some of the more 
minute regulations. Unfortunately this change is not a 
passing from the letter to the spirit of the law, as it has 
been with the reformed Jews, but is a relaxation of the 
old religious belief without a substitution of a more 
modern expression of the truth. Although the conser- 
vative tendencies of national religious organizations will 
sooner or later be overcome if perfect freedom is allowed 
them, they help greatly at first to preserve national dis- 
tinctions. 



CHAPTER X 

CONCLUSION 

In making a summary of the characteristics of the 
various ethnic groups, it is impossible to draw any exact 
comparisons between those groups. All that can be done 
is to point out certain desirable and undesirable qualities 
which immigration has introduced into our social system. 
These characteristics are given with no idea of making 
odious racial comparisons, but rather with the idea of 
showing their importance, not simply to the individuals 
concerned, but to the whole social body. 

Two standards of judgment, or two kinds of qualities, 
should be kept in mind in considering ethnic values : 
first, the individual characteristics of the groups, or the 
value of the nationalities in themselves ; secondly, the 
social values of the group, or their influence on the life 
of the city. It would be well if these two kinds of 
characteristics were identical, but this is not always the 
case. Characteristics of the first kind depend upon the 
stage of social development which a people has reached ; 
those of the second depend partly upon the similarity of 
the customs and institutions of the two peoples compared 
and partly upon the sympathy which the immigrants 
have for the customs and institutions of the new country 
which they enter, as both these conditions affect the ease 
with which the new comers enter into the new social 
system. I shall present my summary with these two 
distinctions in view, instead of following the exact order 
of topics as I have presented them hitherto. 

The Irish in their native country have been subject 
to social conditions exceedingly demoralizing, — perhaps 
the most demoralizing from which any of our immi- 



150 A^nerican Economic Association [456 

grants have come, — and their record in this country- 
shows very clearly the effect of these conditions. Per- 
mitted upon their arrival in the United States to settle 
in the crowded slums of the city instead of in country 
districts such as they had been accustomed to, the 
natural weaknesses of the Irish were increased rather 
than diminished, and the benefits which ought to have 
resulted from a changed environment were very slow in 
appearing. At the present time, therefore, they show 
perhaps the largest proportion of socially inferior in- 
dividuals of any foreign nationality. Under the con- 
ditions in which they are living here they do not show 
great physical vitality. Although frequent instances 
of superior muscular development or of advanced age 
in individuals indicate the probable development of a 
higher physical type in the future, the present high 
death rate both for the first and second generations 
shows that the Irish have not that toughness, that power 
to resist disease, shown by some of the other nationali- 
ties. This same physical instability is shown by the 
exceptionally large number of defectives among them. 
Closely allied to physical weakness is the social and 
moral degeneracy exhibited in a large degree among 
the Irish in their proportion of defectives and delin- 
quents. While serious crime, to be sure, is not very 
prevalent among them, minor misdemeanors, especially 
such as are connected with drunkenness and pauperism, 
are exceptionally common. Degeneracy among the 
Irish, therefore, seems to result from a low stage of 
social development rather than from the possession of 
anti-social characteristics. In their occupations, also, 
the Irish show a low grade of development. They 
gravitate towards unskilled work or the rougher kinds 
of skilled labor and into such personal and governmental 



457] Conclusion 1 5 1 

service as requires little previous training. The Irish 
have only moderate educational attainments, though 
present immigrants are much more literate than were 
former ones. They are bright and quick-witted in their 
mental processes, but show small powers of attainment 
through continued application. Their complete con- 
formity in religious matters indicates little creative 
power or independence of thought. Though it is true 
that in political life they have developed leaders, even 
here their real power lies in their solidarity, in the 
docility of the rank and file, and in the strength of 
their social instincts, rather than in the strong indi- 
vidualities of the leaders. In these social tendencies 
lies the strength of the Irish. The Irishman is most 
effective when he has a circle of strong supporters to 
applaud his efforts. It is the Irish boys that form street 
gangs, and the Irish men that respond to the social in- 
fluences of the saloon. Similar traits are noticeable in 
the Italians, but in most northern European nationali- 
ties, like the Scandinavians and the Germans, they are 
much less prominent. And in this respect the Irish 
differ most of all from the English, whose personalities 
protrude so perceptibly as to repel rather than invite 
friendly support. 

These social characteristics of the Irish make it evi- 
dent in advance that their assimilative qualities must be 
superior to their individual qualities. They enter 
readily into the social system, and make their individual 
characteristics, whether good or bad, widely felt. Their 
interest in politics not only perfects the political assimi- 
lation of their own people but it extends to more recent 
immigrants and helps to arouse in them interest in civil 
affairs. The intermarriage of the Irish with a large 
number of nationalities also assists in their social 



152 American Economic Association [458 

assimilation, because they conform so readily to new 
customs. Their assimilation has contributed many 
valuable traits to the American people ; the happiness 
of the Irish disposition has added to the native optimism, 
their love of pleasure acts as a valuable antidote to 
Jewish seriousness and business concentration. Then 
the contribution which the Irish have made to games 
and sports of all kinds should not be lightly esteemed, 
although they have not always raised them to a very 
high plane — base ball, pugilism, and politics being 
perhaps their favorite sports. As the Irish are the 
largest and one of the oldest of the foreign groups in 
Boston, they act as a sort of intermediary between the 
native population and the later foreign elements. Con- 
sequently it is fortunate that they possess the character- 
istics which make them easily assimilable, though on 
the other hand our whole social system suffers from their 
weak personal characteristics. 

The various English-speaking immigrants have in 
the main similar characteristics, but in certain ways 
they differ from each other and from the native Ameri- 
cans. That two very different classes come from both 
England and Scotland is evident from the immigration 
reports and from the records of the two nationalities in 
the city. The better class of immigrants are fairly well 
to do, and they make a valuable addition to the indus- 
trial world. The less desirable class is indicated by the 
large number of debarred among the immigrants, and 
also by the large degenerate class among the English 
and Scotch of the city. This degenerate class is suffi- 
cient to give an excessive proportion both of dependents 
and of delinquents in the total number. Therefore, while 
the English and Scotch furnish us with a highly 



459] Conclusion 153 

specialized class of labor, they also give us a class which 
becomes a heavy burden to the social body. 

The British Americans are a less positive element 
than the English and Scotch. They bring a smaller 
proportion of undesirable immigrants than do the 
British, but they fall below the standard of the better 
class of immigrants from Great Britain. The skill of 
the British American workmen is below that of the 
English, and the temporary character of much of their 
immigration has an unwholesome effect upon laborers 
who are permanently settled in Boston. In the matter 
of crime and pauperism the British Americans have a 
record very similar to that of the native Americans and 
below that of the English and the Scotch. In the less 
extreme forms, both of poverty and crime, the British 
Americans lead the Americans, while in the more ex- 
treme forms the Americans are slightly ahead. The 
British Americans, however, have a very small class of 
defectives. 

As to the incorporation of the English-speaking immi- 
grants into our social system, progress is not so rapid as 
might be expected, though isolated groups are never 
formed as they are by the non-English speaking nation- 
alities. The interest which the British and the British 
Americans take in our political life is small, even when 
compared with the interest shown by those immigrants 
who have to learn the English language. They inter- 
marry readily, however, with other groups, at least with 
the English-speaking groups. The English are perhaps 
the least readily assimilated of any of the English-speak- 
ing nationalities. The English mix but do not assimi- 
late ; while associating readily with the native popula- 
tion, they hold tenaciously to their national character- 
istics. This is noticeable of the English in whatever 



154 American Economic Association [460 

country they may visit. It is probably less conspicuous 
in the United States than in most countries, for the 
Americans themselves are a bit independent. 

The Germans are without doubt the best type of im- 
migrants which has settled in Boston. They form a 
more homogeneous body of immigrants than do the 
English. Nearly all have some means when they 
arrive with which to make a start, and what is more to 
the point, they have a determined purpose to make 
homes for themselves. The United States is too far 
from Germany to attract many who have no special ob- 
ject in life. With the exception of the insane, the 
degenerate classes among the Germans are very small, and 
fortunately for the city as a whole the Germans do not 
form slums in which degenerates are bred. Though 
German labor is of a high grade, it is not equal to that 
of the English, and competes less seriously with 
American labor. 

When the Germans first enter upon life in a new 
country they usually have a strong prejudice against 
losing their national identity, and consequently they 
often form isolated groups for the purpose of continuing 
their existence as a German colony. Notwithstanding 
their resolves, however, the assimilation of the Germans 
is as rapid as that of the non-English speaking nation- 
alities. The second generation, if not the first, is 
thoroughly American. In a large city like Boston, 
however, isolation is not so great with the Germans as 
it is with certain of the other nationalities, and the as- 
similation of the first generation makes rapid progress. 
The Germans rank among the first in the number of their 
naturalized voters, and their freedom of association is 
shown by the number of marriages with other nationali- 
ties. Though the Germans keep up their own societies, 



461] Conclusion 155 

newspapers, and churches, the fact that their homes and 
all their interests are transferred to this country ensures 
their final assimilation. It is the temporary immigrant 
that remains a foreigner. 

The Scandinavians also are excellent immigrants, 
though in some respects they are not equal to the Ger- 
mans. Minor misdemeanors are of common occurrence 
among them, though serious crimes as well as extreme 
poverty are comparatively rare. Most of the Scandina- 
vians are such skilled workmen and so industrious that 
they never lack employment. In nearly all these per- 
sonal characteristics the Swedes are superior to the Nor- 
wegians. Although the Scandinavians have been here 
too short a time to become assimilated to the same ex- 
tent as have the older nationalities, they have little ten- 
dency to form colonies, and consequently their assimila- 
tion will be so much the more rapid. They have not as 
yet intermarried very extensively with other peoples, 
but they have formed a few alliances with a consider- 
able number of nationalities, showing a tendency to 
wide association. And, considering their length of resi- 
dence, they make a creditable showing in their number 
of voters. 

The position of the Jews differs somewhat from that 
of the other nationalities, owing to their peculiar history. 
So far as their physical and moral characteristics are 
concerned, they are superior to almost every other na- 
tionality. Their death rate is remarkably low, and at 
the same time their birth rate is very high. They have 
also the smallest number of defectives of any one na- 
tionality. Many of the Jews are very poor, but they do 
not come to absolute pauperism, and their criminal 
record is exceptionally small. In addition to their strong 
physical characteristics, most of the Jews have keen in- 



156 American Economic Association [462 

tellects. Those who lack a broad intellectual vision 
show intellectual superiority in craftiness and cunning. 
These mental characteristics have been exaggerated by 
the character of their occupations, which were at first 
doubtless determined largely by necessity, though now 
they are naturally preferred. Few Jews are in the 
liberal professions and few enter the harder kinds of 
manual labor, though the poor Jews are glad to do un- 
skilled work if they can obtain it. Most of the Jews enter 
some sort of trade or engage in the manufacture of 
clothing. 

In their family relations the Jews show admirable 
traits. While among other nationalities the family 
shows signs of instability, with the Jews it retains its old 
position, though the inferior position of Jewish women 
detracts somewhat from its excellence. One other char- 
acteristic which has been attended with important re- 
sults is the Jewish feeling of superiority over_ other peo- 
ples. A certain contempt for the outside gentile world 
has been at the bottom of much of that exasperating 
conduct that has provoked retaliation and persecution 
from gentile neighbors. The fact that reaction against 
the Jews extends beyond the immediate cause often- 
times enables the Jews to pose as the abused parties, 
when, in reality, their own acts brought on the persecu- 
tion. 

The feeling of racial superiority among the Jews is 
intimately connected with the general question of their 
separateness. In the matter of political assimilation 
the record of the Jews is good, and, if allowance is 
made for illiteracy, they are to be found among the 
leading nationalities. So the Jews may be said to take 
a creditable interest in national life notwithstanding the 
fact that it is often from selfish business motives. The 



463] Conclusion 157 

actual assimilation of the Jews by intermarriage, how- 
ever, is comparatively small owing to religious differ- 
ences. With primitive people tribal exclusiveness and 
many self-centered activities are often essential for self- 
preservation, and when this danger of extermination is 
passed, individual isolation is no longer necessary. 
With the Jews, however, separateness is given a re- 
ligious sanction, and consequently has persisted with 
the persistence of the Jewish religion. The result is 
that we have the curious spectacle of a people who feel 
the need of remaining separate from others even while 
scattered throughout the world. With the Jews this 
feeling is more than the natural dislike to marry a per- 
son of a different religion — it is the desire for race 
purity. The religion of the Jews separates them not 
merely in the form of their worship but also in many 
minor ways, such as food and the observance of a 
separate Sabbath and of separate holidays. 

In matters of a non-religious character the Jews are 
fairly imitative. It is only their religion and things re- 
sulting directly therefrom that isolate them. In fact it 
may be said that the great objection both to the personal 
and social characteristics of the Jews is that they are 
not Christians, and by this I mean that they do not 
recognize the principle of the brotherhood of man. 
There may be some grounds for the Jewish belief in 
their superiority, but in so far as they make it an excuse 
for distinctions in their obligations they show moral 
inferiority. Others besides Jews, to be sure, fail to 
grasp the idea of universal brotherhood, but the cause 
with them is rather a narrow intellectual view than a 
matter of principle. The Jews have many excellent 
traits, but so long as they retain their personal attitude 



158 Americaji Economic Association [464 

towards the external world they cannot become a very 
valuable element in any society. The change in atti- 
tude must come from them, for no nation can assimilate 
an element which consciously holds itself aloof. 

Although the Italians have been here too short a time 
for the complete results of their stay to appear from 
statistics, certain tendencies are manifest. The Italians 
are less self-reliant tlian many nationalities. They learn 
English slowly and are in general very ignorant. Some 
have no permanent interests here, and all are trying to 
save as much money as possible. For these reasons the 
Italians herd together persistently, and as they are in- 
creasing rapidly they are forming objectionable perma- 
nent slums. They are now living in the most crowded 
and unsanitary condition of all the nationalities in 
Boston. These conditions are aggravated by an excess 
of unskilled laborers — single men who are idle a large 
part of the time. The result thus far has been a high 
rate of infant mortality, an excess of serious crime among 
the men, and an increase in drunkenness and sexual de- 
pravity. In other words, the Italians show the begin- 
nings of a degenerate class, such as has developed fully 
among the Irish. As they come to us they are not bad 
material ; they are poor and ignorant, but thus far they 
have developed few paupers or defectives, and few of 
them belong to the class of petty criminals. They are 
a simple peasant class who respond readily to their en- 
vironment ; if allowed to continue in unwholesome con- 
ditions we may be sure that the next generation will 
bring forth a large crop of dependents, delinquents, and 
defectives to fill up our public institutions. 

The Italians have thus far made little progress towards 
assimilation. Ignorance keeps a large number from ex- 



465] Co7icliision 159 

ercising the franchise ; however, even the better edu- 
cated take little interest in political life. A few Italian 
men have married women from neighboring nationali- 
ties, but thorough assimilation has been confined to a 
few whose interests have taken them outside the colony. 

The Portuguese are a small element in the population 
of Boston, and they are not increasing. They have a 
low standard of morality, although their criminal record 
is small. They are poor, — many of them very poor, — 
but they are not paupers. As a class they are ignorant, 
and most of the workers are unskilled. They have as- 
similated hardly more than the Italians, either politi- 
cally or socially. Their tendency to live by themselves, 
however, makes their influence comparatively unimpor- 
tant. 

Our relation towards the Negroes is somewhat differ- 
ent from that towards the foreign nationalities, as most 
of them already form a part of the social system, though 
a few come to us from the West Indian islands. The 
slave conditions from which the Negroes have so recently 
come perhaps make a comparison between them and for- 
eign nationalities unfair. A comparison of the Negroes 
with any foreign group would be to the disadvantage of 
the Negroes. They have a much larger number of de- 
generates than any foreign nationality ; crime is excep- 
tionally common with them, and it has a hard tinge of 
viciousness about it, indicating a low moral sense. Even 
the moral equilibrium of the middle class church-goers 
is unstable. They relax easily into vulgarity, if not into 
immorality. In addition to their criminal record the 
Negroes have a large class of defectives and are very 
poor, although absolute pauperism is not so great among 
them as might be expected. Their rate of mortality is 



i6o American Economic Association [466 

also exceptionally high. Poverty among the Negroes 
might be explained partially by their necessary racial 
isolation, but not so their other forms of degeneracy. 
The Chinese have not these forms of degeneracy, and 
the isolation of the Jews has tended to increase rather 
than to weaken their moral stamina. This is because 
the Jews have a strong racial pride almost entirely lack- 
ing with the Negroes. The admirable qualities of the 
Negroes are to be found in a comparatively small class 
who, while contending against great odds, are making 
laudable progress. 

No great progress has been made toward the assimila- 
tion of the Negroes through race intermixture, and prob- 
ably such a thing is not at present desirable. Greater 
political activity, however, might be of advantage to 
the Negroes themselves. The Negroes are now passing 
through a period of natural selection. They will need 
to develop greater solidarity and self-consciousness be- 
fore taking a prominent place in the social system. 

In the discussion of these traits of the various racial 
groups a word may be said concerning the second gen- 
eration. The character of our population will of course 
be influenced greatly by future immigration ; as the 
population now stands the Irish, the Jews, the British 
Americans, and the Italians are contributing by far the 
largest part of its growth, although the Jews, Italians, 
and Swedes are increasing at the most rapid rate. Little 
can be said concerning the characteristics of the second 
generation, though in certain ways the second genera- 
tion of those nationalities which tend to congregate in 
the slums shows a deterioration over the first. With 
the Irish the second generation shows an increase of 
crime, and this holds good even among the women, with 



467] Conclusion 161 

whom unchastity is more prevalent than in the first gen- 
eration. With the Italians and the Jews the death rate 
of the second generation is much greater than that of 
the first, though other forms of degeneracy are not yet 
noticeable. With other nationalities who are increasing 
less rapidly and who live in more healthful surround- 
ings the second generation appears to have made an im- 
provement over the first. 



LIST OF TABLES 

PAGE 

I. Percentages of Excluded Immigrants among Import- 
ant Nationalities 13 

II. Average Amount of Money per Capita brought by the 

Important Nationalities 14 

III. Percentage of Males in Total Population of Boston, by 

Place of Birth 16 

IV. Percentages of the Various Nationalities belonging to 

the Three Age Periods 17 

V. Percentage of Illiterates among Immigrants, 1900-1901 19 
VI. Proportions of the Various Nationalities living in Rent- 
ed Tenements in 1891 27 

VII. Percentages of the Three given Nationalities living in 

Tenements " Poor and Bad " in at least One Respect 33 
VIII. Rates of Mortality by Place of Birth and Parent Nativity 

for the Various Ethnic Groups in Boston, 1894-96 40 

IX. Birth Rates for Various Ethnic Groups in Boston for 

1889-90 45 

X. Natural Increase for the Various Ethnic Groups in 

Boston 48 

XI. Percentages of Persons engaged in Gainful Occupations 

in 1885, by Sex and Place of Birth 57 

XII. Occupations by Place of Birth for 1870 and 1885 60 

XIII. Detailed Occupations by Place of Birth of Males and 

Females for 1870, of Males for 1885 63 

XIV. Occupations of Females in 1895 by Place of Birth 68 

XV. Detailed Occupations by Place of Birth, Females, 1885 69 

XVI. Classified Occupations by Place of Birth, 1870 and 1885 80 
XVII. Paupers in the City Almshouses by Place of Birth and 

by Parent Nativity for the Year 1899-1900 85 

XVIII. Percentages of Paupers for the State, 1895, by Place of 

Birth 86 

XIX. Proportions of the Various Nationalities appearing in 
the " New Cases " of the Associated Charities for the 

Years 1889, 1890, 1891 87 

XX. Proportion of the Various Nationalities receiving Aid 

from the Overseers for the Years 1864-1872 89 

XXI. Proportions of the Various Nationalities received at 
the Wayfarer's Lodge for the Average of the Years 
1894-95-96 90 



164 American Economic Association [47© 

XXII. Causes of Poverty by Selected Nationalities 91 

XXIII. Average Number of Arrests by Place of Birth for the 

Years 1894, 1895, 1896 98 

XXIV. Commitments to the Houses of Correction for the Year 

1897, by Place of Birth loi 

XXV. Commitments to the State Penal Institutions for the 

Three Years 1894, 1895, and 1896 102 

XXVI. Commitments to the Massachusetts Reformatory and 
the Reformatory for Women for 1894, 1895, 1896, by 

Place of Birth and by Parent Nativity 103 

XXVII. Classified Offenses for the State Prison by Place of Birth 

1894, 1895, and 1896 105 

XXVIII. Classified Offenses of the Inmates of the Women's Re- 
formatory by Place of Birth and by Parent Nativity, 

1894-96 106 

XXIX. Proportionate Number of Defectives and of Insane in 
the State by Place of Birth and by Parent Nativity, 

1895 118 

XXX. Proportionate Niimber of Naturalized Foreigners by 

Place of Birth for 1885 and 1900 122 

XXXI. Ratios of Voters to Males for 1895 and 1896 124 

XXXII. Voters by Place of Birth, Allowing for Five Years' 

Residence 126 

XXXIII. Voters by Place of Birth, Allowing for Five Years' 

Residence and for Illiteracy 128 

XXXIV. Voters by Place of Birth, Allowing for Five Years' 

Residence and for Illiteracy as to English 129 

XXXV, Proportionate Number of Intermarriages among the 

Various Nationalities according to Births, 1895 137 

XXXVI. Proportionate Number of Intermarriages among the 
Various Nationalities, according to Births, 1895, in 
Detail 139 



INDEX 



Agents, emigration, 5 ; increase, 74, 
76 ; steamship, 5. 

Ages of immigrants, 17, 19 ; of na- 
tionalities, see various nationalities, 
of native born, 18. 

Agricultural labor, 74. 

Aliens, excluded from U. S., 12. 

Almshouse pauperism, 94. See Pov- 
erty, Pauperism. 

Almshouses, 84, 97. 

Americans, arrests, 99 ; birth rate, 
55 ; crime, loi, 103-107, 112, 117, 
121; defectives, 118-119, 121; 
dninkenness, 91-92 ; employment, 
58, 61-62, 65-70, 71-74, 78-80, 83 ; 
in lodging houses, 31-33 ; insanity, 
119; in tenements, 28; intermar 
riage, 138-145 ; location, 26 ; mar- 
ried women, 59 ; mortality, 40, 42 ; 
natural increase, 48, 55, 81 ; pau- 
perism, 84, 94 ; poverty, 91-92 ; 
rural, 35 ; sickness, 91. 

Amusements, increase, 77. 

Apartments, Jewish, 26. See Tene- 
ments. 

Argentine Republic, Jewish Colonies 
in, 9. 

Armenians, churches, 147 ; employ- 
ments, 73, 81. 

Army, German, 11 ; Italian, 6. 

Arrests, 99-102 ; of nationalities, see 
various nationalities. 

Artisans, 61-62, 72-74, 80, 82-83 ; 
British American, 10 ; Jewish, 7, 82. 

Artists, 77. 

Assault and battery, loi. 

Assimilation and intermarriage, 136, 
146 ; obstacles, 146-147 ; of races, 
135-136 ; and religion, 146-148. 

Assimilative tendencies of groups, 
122. 

Associated Charities, annual reports, 
87 ; new cases, 88. 

Austrians, intermarriage, 139, .142- 
143 ; voters, 125. 

Azore Islands, no. 

Bakers, 67. 

Bankers, increase, 76 ; and brokers, 
66, 76. 

Barbers, 67 ; Portuguese, 83. 

Bavaria, laborers, 11 ; wages, 11. 

Birds of passage, 10, 18, 23. 



Birth rates, 38 ; errors, 39 ; for Massa- 
chusetts, 46 ; method of compiling, 
45 ; of nationalities, see various 
nationalities ; sources, 44-45 ; vari- 
ations, 55. 

Boarders, number, 34. 

Boarding and lodging houses, in- 
crease, 78 ; keepers, 70. See Lodg- 
ing houses. 

Bookkeepers, 66. 

Boston, almshouses, 84 ; a trading 
centre, 76 ; crime among natives, 
112; East Boston, 25 ; foreign popu- 
lation, 1-2 ; North End, 25-26, 28- 
32, 112, 133 ; South, 25, 27, 30, loi ; 
South End, 25-27, 33-34, 115 ; West 
End, 25-26, 30-33. 

Brafmann, Joseph, 9. 

Brighton, 75. 

British America, emigration, 10. 

British Americans, arrests, 99, loi ; 
assimilation, 147 ; characteristics, 
153 ; competition, 73-74 ; crime, 
103-105, 107-108, 112, 117, 121 ; de- 
fectives, 1 1 9-1 2 1 ; education, 20 ; 
emigration, 10, 23 ; employment, 
58, 61-62, 66-71, 73, 79, 81, 83; 
financial condition, 37 ; illiteracy, 
20, 129-130; in lodging houses, 33, 
37 ; in politics, 131-132, 134 ; in 
tenements, 28, 37 ; intermarriage, 
137. 139-141, 143-145 ; length of 
residence, 2 ; married women, 59 ; 
mortality, 41, 54 ; natural increase, 
51 ; naturalization, 123 ; numerical 
increase, 56 ; pauperism, 84-86, 94 ; 
percentage employed, 58 ; poverty, 
90 ; sex, 10, 15-16, 23, 86, 117 ; vot- 
ers, 124, 129-130; wages, 74. See 
Canadians. 

British Charitable Society, 94. 

British, education , 19 ; increase, 56 ; 
in politics, 131, 134 ; in tenements, 
28 ; pauperism, 84-85, 93-94 ; pov- 
erty, 88, 90, 94. See English, 
Scotch. 

Brokers, increase, 76. 

Building trades, British in, 81 ; com- 
petition, 73. 

Canadians, immigration, 10 ; inter- 
marriage, 139, 141, 143 ; naturaliza- 
tion, 123. See British Americans. 



i66 



Index 



[472 



Carpenters, and wood workers, 66 ; 
competition, 73 ; wages, 74. 

Census, 1885, 124 ; 1895, 16 ; 1900, i ; 
of North End, 29. 

Centralization in trade, 76. 

Charities, Associated, 87-88. 

Charlestown, 75, 78 ; almshouse, 84. 

Chicago, crime of Negroes, 115. 

Children, among immigrants, 18. 

Chinatown, 100. 

Chinese, arrests, 99-100; crime, 115- 
116; intermarriage with whites, 145. 

Churches of nationalities, 147. 

Citizenship, desire for, 122 ; require- 
ments, 125. 

City transportation, 67, 76. 

Classified occupations, 75. 

Clergymen, 65. 

Clerks, 10, 35, 66, 69 ; and salesmen, 
72 ; increase, 76. 

Clothing makers, 70, 82. 

Coachmen, 67-68. 

Commercial classes, 66. 

Commercial employments. See Em- 
ployments. 

Commissioner of labor, report, 109. 

Competition, among nationalities, 62, 
71-75, 81-82 ; and the birth rate, 
81 ; among newsboys, 74 ; among 
the Portuguese, 82 ; in trade, 80 ; 
of Jews, 82. 

Compositors, 70, 76. 

Contract laborers, Italian, 13, 

Contract work, 75. 

Crime, 109-116 ; against chastity, 107- 
112 ; against person, 105 - 107 ; 
against property, 105-107 ; against 
public order, 105 ; among national- 
ities, see various nationalities ; and 
illiteracy, 116-117; and sex, 117; 
of women, 106-109, 111-114, 116. 

Crowding in lodging houses, 74. 

Czar of Russia, 7. 

Danes, churches, 147 ; intermarriage, 
142. 

Death rate. See Mortality. 

Deer Island, house of correction, loi. 

Defective classes, 117-11S, 1 20-121 ; 
and degeneracy, 118. 

Degeneracy, 117-118; of nationali- 
ties, see various nationalities. 

Degenerate classes, 120. 

Delinquent classes, 98. 

Democrats, 133. 

Density, in North End, 28, 29 ; of na- 
tionalities, see various nationalities. 

Depenilent classes, 87-8S, 96, 98, 119- 
120. 

Desertions of Jewish meu, 44, iii. 



Dining rooms in lodging houses, 35. 

Diseases of nationalities. See various 
nationalities. 

Disorderly conduct, 107. 

Distribution, numbers engaged in, 76. 

Division of labor, 75, 77, 80-81. 

Divorce among Jews, 44. 

Domestic servants, 71, 78 ; in Charles- 
town in 1870 and 1895, 78. 

Domestic service, 71, 73, 77, 79, 81. 

Down, county of, 3. 

Dressmakers, 70. 

Drink and drunkenness, among 
Americans, 91 ; among Germans, 
92 ; among Irish, 92, 112, 113 ; 
among Italians, 112; as cause of 
poverty, 91-92. 

Dumont, Arsene, 49. 

Dutch, assimilation, 146 ; illiteracy, 
130 ; intermarriage, 141-142 ; natur- 
alization, 123 ; voters, 125-126, 130. 

Dwellings, 26 ; in Ireland, 3-4. 

East Boston, 25. 

Education, advantages of, 21 ; desire 
for, 20 ; of immigrants, 19-22 ; of 
nationalities, see various nationali- 
ties. See Illiteracy. 

Election Commissioners, reports of, 
124. 

Elopements, no. 

Employment, among nationalities, 
58, see various nationalities ; com- 
mercial, 66, 75, 81 ; division of 
labor, 75; in U. S., 10; in 1870, 
1885, and 1890, 71-72 ; mercantile, 
60, 68, 72, 80-83 ; of women, 58, 68- 
71 ; professional, 60, 62-65, 68, 72, 
75. 77. 79-83- See Labor. 

England, emigration from, 10 ; return 
of immigrants to, 11 ; workmen 
from, 81. 

Eriglish, ages, 18 ; arrests, 99 ; assimil- 
ation, 147, 153 ; characteristics, 152 ; 
competition, 74 ; crime, 102-4, 106, 
loS, 116-117 ; debarred, 13-14,96; 
defectives, 1 19-120; degenerates, 
120, 152 ; dependents, 96 ; educa- 
tion, 19 ; effect on wages, 74 ; emi- 
gration, 10, 24 ; emploj'ment, 58, 
61-62, 66-67, 70, 72-73, Si, 83 ; 
financial condition, 14, 24, 36 ; illit- 
eracy, 117, 127, 129; in lodging 
hou.ses, 33, 37 ; in politics, 131 ; in 
tenements, 37 ; intermarriage, 141 ; 
mortality, 41-42, 52, 54 ; natural 
increase, 51 ; naturalization, 123- 
124; pauperism, 14, 85-87, 93; 
poverty, 90-91 ; sex, 86 ; size of 
families, 90 ; social tendencies, 151 ; 



473] 



Index 



167 



two classes, 152 ; voters, 124, 126. 
See British. 

Factories, 71 ; employment in, 11, 68. 

Family life, among Irish, 44 ; among 
Italians, 44, among Jews, 43 ; in flu 
ence, 19. 

Famine, in Ireland, 2. 

Fan-tan, 100. 

Farmers, German, 11. 

Financial condition of immigrants, 
14. See various nationalities 

Fishermen, 67. 

Food, of Italians, 29 ; of Jews, 30. 

Franchise, 122-123, 126; exercise, 
125, 130. 

French, arrests, 99 ; assimilation, 
146; churches, 147; crime, loi, 
104 ; defectives, 118-119 ; illiteracy, 
129-130; intermarriage, 137, 139; 
natural increase, 52 ; naturaliza- 
tion, 123 ; pauperism, 87 ; poverty, 
88-90; voters, 125, 129-130. 

Fruit dealers, 73, 76. 

Gambling, among Italians, 1.12 ; 
among Negroes, 115. 

Garibaldi, 133. 

Genoese, 66. 

German immigrants, source, 11. 

Germans, ages, 18 ; arrests, 99, loi ; 
assimilation, 154-155 ; birth rate, 
46 ; characteristics, 154 ; churches, 
147 ; competition, 82 ; crime, loi, 
103-104, 106. 108, 111-112, 117; de- 
barred, 13 ; defectives, 121 ; deusit}-, 
31 ; drunkenness, 92 ; education, 
19; emigration, 11, 24; employ- 
ment, 58, 61-62, 65-69, 71-72, 78- 
79, 82-83 ; financial condition, 24 ; 
illiteracy, 117, 130; in politics, 124, 
130, 136 ; in tenements, 28 ; in- 
sanity, 119, 121 ; intermarriage, 
137-139 ; location, 25, 31 ; married 
women, 59 ; mode of life, 31, 37 ; 
mortality, 41-43, 54 ; natural in- 
crease, 52, 97 ; naturalization, 123 ; 
numerical increase, 56 ; pauperism, 
85-87, 95-96 ; poverty, 88, 90, 92, 
95 ; sex, 24, 86 ; shiftlessness and 
inefficiency, 92 ; vitality, 120 ; 
voters, 124. 

Germany, death rate, 43. 

Governmental employment. See Em- 
ployment. 

Great Britain, labor in, 11. 

Greeks, arrests, 99; crime, 115-116; 
employment, 67, 73. 

Hebrews. See Jews. 

Hirsch fund, 8, 9. 

Hobo fraternity, 91. 



Hoffman, Frederick, 41. 

Hotel work, 108. 

Houses of correction. 113; at Deer 
Island, loi ; at South Boston, loi. 

Housewives, 58. 

Housework, 108. 

Illiteracy, among nationalities, see 
various nationalities ; and crime, 
Ii6-ii7;and pauperism, 97; En- 
glish, 126-127, 130. >SV?<? Education. 

Immigrants, characteristics, 23-24 ; 
excluded, 13 ; financial condition, 
14 ; qualities, 149 ; temporary, 10. 

Immigration, laws, 12-13 ; reports, 17. 

Immorality, due to excess of one sex, 
117; of Irish, 117; of Negroes, no, 
115, 117; of Portuguese, no, 117; 
sexual, 107-108, 115. 

Inefficiency as cause of poverty, 92. 

Intermarriage, 1 26 ; and language, 
146 ; and naturalization, 145 ; and 
race, 145 ; and religion, 145 ; of na- 
tionalities, see various nationalities. 

Insanity, 119; among nationalities, 
see various nationalities. 

Ireland, death rates, 43 ; social con- 
ditions, 2-5, 149-150. 

Irish, ages, 17-18 ; arrests, 99 ; assim- 
ilation, 146, 151; birth rate, 46, 
capabilities, 22; characteristics, 
149-151 ; churches, 147 ; cleanli- 
ness, 30-31 ; crime, 102-105, 107- 
108, 113-114, 116-117, 120, 150 ; de- 
fectives, 118-119; defects, 150; den- 
sit}', 30, 34 ; drunkenness, 92-93, 
113; education, 22, 150-151 ; emi- 
gration, 2, 23 ; employment. 52*6^1- 
62, 66-71. 74-75, 78-79, 81, 83, 150 ; 
family life, 43-44 ; financial condi- 
tion, 15, 23, 31 ; illiteracy, 130; in 
lodging houses, 34 ; in politics,_r5o- 
I3_i ; insanity, 119; in tenements, 
28; intermarriage, 137-139,141-145, 
151-152 ; in unsanitarj' tenements, 
32-33 ; length of re.sidence, i ; loca- 
tionj_25 ; married women, 59 ; mor- 
tality, 40, 42-44, 54. 93 ; natural in- 
crease, 51 ; naturalization, 123 ; nu- 
merical increase, 55-56 ; paiiperism, 
84-87, 92-93, 96 ; poverty, 36, 90- 
91, 93; religion, 151 ; second gene- 
ration, 160; sex, 15-16, 23,93, 117 ; 
sicki ess, 44, 92-93 ; .'•ize of families, 
90; social tendencies, 151; stand- 
ard of living, 2 ; strength, 151 ; un- 
thriftiness, 31, 36; valuable traits, 
152; vitality, 53, 56; voters, 124, 
126, 130. 

Italians, ages, 5, 18, 24 ; arrests, 99 ; 



1 68 



hidex 



[474 



assimilation, 146, 158-159; birth 
rale, 46-53 ; characteristics, 158 ; 
churches, 147 ; cleanliness, 31 ; 
competition, 74, 81 ; crime, loi, 
103-106, 112-114, 117, 121 ; de- 
barred, 13; defectives, 119-121 ; de- 
linquents, 121 ; density, 28, 30, 36 ; 
education, 21, 24 ; emigration, 4, 6, 
23 ; employment, 58, 61, 65-68, 70, 
73) 75. 79) 81-82 ; excess, 82-83 ; 
family life, 43-44 ; financial condi- 
tion, 15, 23, 96 ; food, 29-30 ; illit- 
eracy, 20, 117, 130; immigration, 
2 ; in lodging houses, 34 ; in poli- 
tics, 132 ; in tenements, 27, 29 ; in- 
termarriage, 137-139, 142-144, 159 ; 
in unsanitary tenements, 32-33, 36 ; 
length of residence, 2 ; location, 25 ; 
married women, 59 ; mode of life, 

29, 36 ; mortality, 41-43, 54, 121 ; 
natural increase, 55-56, 97 ; natur- 
alization, 123, 125, 159 ; numerical 
increase, 56 ; pauperism, 85-87, 96 ; 
poverty, 88, 91, 95 ; second genera- 
tion, 161 ; sex, 15-16, 23, 117 ; sick- 
ness, 44 ; vitality, 53, 56 ; voters, 
125-126, 130. 

Italy, social conditions, 5-6. 
Jewish pale of settlement, 7,. 8 
Jews, ages, 17-18, and Ge^Liles, 9, 

156 ; arrests, 99 ; assimilation, 146, 
156) 157 ; birth rate, 46 ; character- 
istics, 155-157; cleanlineL;i, 130;! 
competition, 74, 82 ; crime, loi, 
103-104, 106, 110-112, 117; de- 
barred, 13 ; defectives, 119 ; density, 

30, 36 ; disease^, 42 ; education, 21 ; 
employment,^8, 61-62, 66-68, 70, 
73-74. 79. 81-83 ; family life, 43-44) 
III ; financial condition, 15, 23, 96 ; 
food, 30; illiteracy, 20, 117, 129- 
131 ; emigration, 2, 7, 23-24 ; in 
Poland, 9-10 ; in politics, 1 ^1-13 2, 
134 ; in tenements, 26-27 ; inter- 
marriage, 1377139. 141-143, 145, 

157 ; in unsanitary tenements, 32- 
33; isolation, 157; length of resi- 
dence, 2 ; location, 25 ; married 
women, 59; mortality, 41-44, 52, 
54 ; natural increase, 55-56, 97 ; 
naturalization, 123 ; numerical in- 
crease, 55-56 ; pauperism, 85, 87, 
96 ; persecution, 8, 156 ; poverty, 
88-89, 9I) 95 ; reformed, 147 ; regu- 
lations concerning, 7 ; relief work, 
89 ; religion, 52, 148, 157 ; second 
generation, 161 ; separateness, 156 ; 
socialism, 82 ; synagogues, 147 ; 
undesirable qualities, 157 ; vitality, 



52-53, 56, 120 ; voters, 125-126, 129- 
131. See Poles, Russians. 
Kerry, county of, 3. 
Labor, free movement, 11 ; skilled, 
60-62, 66-67, 69, 70, 72, 81 ; un- 
skilled, 60-62, 67-68, 71-72, 76, 78, 
81-82. See Employment. 
Larceny, loi. 
Laundresses, 71. 
Laws, immigration, 12-13. 
Lawyers, 77. 
Legal voters, 123-124. 
Literacy. See Education, Illiteracy. 
Literature, 77. 

Lodgers, employment, 35 ; marriages, 
49 ; numbers, 34 ; social position, 
30, 36. 
Lodging houses, 36, 109 ; character- 
istics, 34-35 ; definition, 33 ; ex- 
penses, 35 ; nationalities, 5(?^ various 
nationalities ; numbers, 34. 
i Long Island almshouse, 84. 
Manufacturing, prostitution, 109 ; 
employments, 75 ; establishments, 
68. 
Married women, among nationalities, 
see various nationalities ; and ratio 
of sexes 58, 59. 
Masons and stoneworkers, 66-67. 
Massachusetts bureau of labor, re- 
ports, 108, 123, 129. 
Massachusetts, crime among natives, 
,105, 107 ; employment, 65 ; employ- 
j ment among natives, 71, 73 ; exer- 
j cise of franchise, 122 ; defectives 
among natives, 117 ; intermarriage 
of natives, 137 ; reformatory, 102. 
May Laws, 7. 

Mercantile employments. See Em- 
ployments. 
Mechanics, 35. 
Merchants and dealers, 61, 66, 70, 72- 

73 ; increase, 76. 
Metal workers, 74. 
Mexicans, crime, 115. 
I Misdemeanors, 113-114, 117. See 
j Crime. 

; Money of immigrants, 15. 
j Morality, standard for Portuguese, 
I 99, no, for Jews, no, for Negroes, 

1 10 ; study of, 98. 
j Mortality rates, and standard of liv- 
ing, 54 ; errors, 38 ; for nationali- 
j ties, see various nationalities ; in 
j 1890, 40-41, 48 ; in Europe, 43 ; 
! method of computing, 39 ; of in- 
fants, 42. 
Mosaic Law, no. 
I Mulattoes, 22. 



475] 



Index 



169 



Music, 65. 

Musicians, 65, 77 ; street, 65. 

Nationalities, number, i ; in tene- 
ments, 27. 

Natural increase, of nationalities, 38- 
39, 47, see various nationalities ; 
theory of, 49. 

Naturalization, 130-134 ; and inter- 
marriage, 146 

Naturalized voters, 130. 

Natural selection, among Irish, 51 ; 
among Jews, 52, 54. 

Negroes, assimilation, 160 ; birth rate, 
46 ; capabilities, 22 ; characteristics, 
159, 160 ; cleanliness, 32 ; crime, 
102-103, iiOi 114-117 ; defectives, 
119; degenerates, 120; density, 31, 
34, 37 ; dependents, 120 ; diseases, 
41 ; drunkenness, 92 ; education, 
32 ; employment, 79 ; expenditures, 
32 ; family life, 116 ; financial con- 
dition, 37 ; food, 32 ; inferiority, 
50 ; in lodging houses, 31-32, 34 ; 
in politics, 133-134 ; in tenements, 
31 ; intermarriage, 143, 145 ; in un- 
sanitary tenements, 33 ; location, 
25 ; mortality, 40-42, 54 ; natural 
decrease, 49-50, 55 ; pauperism, 85- 
97, 120; poverty, 88, 92, 94; sex, 
86 ; sickness, 92. 

Newsboys, competition, 74. 

North End, 25, 133 ; crime, 112 ; den- 
sity of population, 28-30 ; dwell- 
ings, 26, 32. 

Northern Europeans, in politics, 134. 

Norwegians, arrests. 99, 116; churches, 
147; illiteracy, 129-130; intermar- 
riage, 142 ; voters, 129-130. See 
Scandinavians. 

Nova Scotia, emigration, 10. 

Nurses, 69. 

Occupation, 79-83. 

Offences. See Crime. 

Out door relief, 89. 

Overseers of the poor, 89. 

Padrone system, 82. 

Painters, 74. 

Pale of settlement, 7-S. 

Pant makers, 70. 

Pauperism, 85, 94 ; and illiteracy, 97 ; 
and natural increase, 97. 

Paupers, almshouse, 87 ; among na- 
tionalities, see various nationalities; 
sex, 86. 

Peasants, German, 11 ; Italian, 5 ; 
Russian, 8-9. 

Peddlers, 60-61, 67, 99. 

Penal institutions, no, 115. 

Perkins institute, 119. 



Persecutions of Jews, 8. 

Personal service. 77-78, 81. 

Physicians, 65. 

Piedmont, 6. 

Pioneer immigrants, 18. 

Poland, condition of Jews, 9-10. 

Poles, arrests, 99 ; churches, 147 ; in- 
termarriage, 137, 139, 141-144. See 
Jews. 

Police. 62, 100 ; reports, 98. 

Politics, 130 ; nationalities in, see va- 
rious nationalities. 

Population, 1900, i ; 1891, 27. 

Portuguese, ages, 17-18 ; arrests, 99 ; 
assimilation, 146, 159 ; character- 
istics, 159 ; churches, 147 ; compe- 
tition, 74, 83 ; crime, 103-104, 109- 
iio, 116; defectives, 119; educa- 
tion, 20-21, 24 ; emigration, 24 ; em- 
ployment, 58, 61, 67, 70, 78-79, 83 ; 
financial condition, 24 ; illiteracy, 
20, 24, 127, 129-130 ; in politics, 133 ; 
in tenements, 27 ; intermarriage, 
138-139, 142, 144; location, 25; 
married women, 59 ; naturalization, 
125, 12S-130, 133 ; needlewomen, 
S8, 95 ; poverty, 88, 95 ; sex, 15 ; 
voters, 125, 129-130, 133. 

Potato in Ireland, 2, 3. 

Poverty, 92-97 ; among nationalities, 
see .-..rious nationalities ; causes, 
91-92. 

Preachers, 65. 
'rinters 70, 74. 

Productive employment, 76. 

Professional employment, growth, 
77 ; function, 77. See Employ- 
ment. 

Prostitution, 108-109, ii5- 

Quebec, immigrants, 10. 

Railroad, employees, 66 ; transporta- 
tion, 76. 

Reformatory for women, 102, 106. 

Relief work, by overseers of the poor, 
89 ; Jewish, 89. See Associated 
Charities, British Charitable 
Society. 

Religion, and assimilation, 146-147 ; 
and intermarriage, 145 ; of nation- 
alities, see various nationalities. 

Rents, of tenements, 27. 

Republicans, 133. 

Restaurants, 71 ; work, 108. 

Roxburj', 25-27, 31 ; density of popu- 
lation, 31 ; Lower, 25 ; tenements, 
27, 31 : West, 75. 

Rural Americans, 35, 80. 

Russia, conditions, 6-7. 

Russian peasants, 8-9. 



lyo 



hidex 



[476 



Russians. See Jew?. 

Sailors, 67. 

Salesmen, 34, 66, 72, 76. 

Saleswomen, 34, 69, 70. 

Sanitation of tenements, 32. 

Scandinavians, ages, 24 ; arrests, 116 ; 
assimilation, 155 ; characteristics, 
155; crime, 116 ; education, 19, 24, 
37 ; emigration, 18 ; financial con- 
dition, 24, 37 ; illiteracy, 129, 151 ; 
in tenements, 28 ; mode of life, 37 ; 
naturalization, 123 ; pauperism, 95- 
96 ; poverty, 88, 95 ; sex, 24 ; voters, 
125, 129, 131. See Norwegians, 
Swedes. 

Schools for iiimiigrants, 20. 

Scotch, ages, 18 ; arrests, 99 ; charac- 
teristics, 152 ; churches, 147 ; com- 
petition, 74 ; crime, 103-104, 106- 
107, 116-117; debarred, 13-14, 96; 
defectives, 1 19-120; degenerates, 
120, 152; dependents, 96; emigra- 
tion, 10, 24 ; employment, 58, 61- 
62, 66-67, 73. 78-79, 81, 83 ; finan- 
cial condition, 24; illiteracy, 117; 
in politics, 121 ; mortality, 41-42, 
54 ; natural increase, 51 ; natural- 
ization, 122, 124 ; pauperism, 84- 
^7< 93 ! poverty, 84-86 91 ; sex, 24 ; 
two classes, 152 ; voters 124, 126. 
See British. 

Scotland, emigration, 10; workmen 
from, 8r. 

Schulters, Conmiissioner, 5, 9, 11. 

Schnyltr, Eugene, 6. 

Seamstresses, 70, 78, 83. 

Second generation of nationalities, 
160-161. 

Semi-criminal classes, 94. 

Semi-dependent cla.'.s, 84, 120. 

Servants, 67-68 

Sexes, and crime, 117 ; inequality, 17 ; 
of nationalities, 5^f various nation- 
alities ; of paupers, 86, 96 ; of pop- 
ulation, 15, 86. 

Shiftlessness, cause of poverty, 92. 

Shop girls, 109. 

Sickness, cause of poverty, 91-92. 

Size of families among nationalities. 
See various nationalities. 

Social solidarit)', 135-136. 

South Boston, density of population, 
30 ; house of coirection, loi ; tene- 
ments, 27. 

South End, 25 ; gambling, 115 ; lodg- 
ing houses, 26, 34 ; tenements, 26- 
27. 

Southern Europeans in politics, 134. 

Spanish, 143-144. 



Spencer, Herbert, 77. 

Standard of living. 36. 

State institutions, 102, 115; prison, 
102-105, 113. 

Steamship agents, 5. 

Steamship companies, 13. 

Steerage passengers, 13, 96. 

Street car employees, 67. 

Summaries : characteristics of immi- 
grants, 23-24 ; crime, 109-116 ; nat- 
uralization, 130-134 ; occupation, 
79-83 ; poverty, 92-97 ; standard of 
living, 36 ; vitality, 53-56. 

Swedes, arrests, 99 ; characteristics, 
23 ; churches, 147 ; competition, 
82 ; crime, 103-104, 116 ; defectives, 
119; emigration, iS ; employment, 
58, 61, 66-69, 7'-73.. 78-79. 81-83 ; 
illiteracy, 129-130 ; intermarriage, 
139, 142-143 ; married women, 59 ; 
natural increase, 52, 97 ; naturaliza- 
tion, 123-124; numerical increase, 
56 ; pauperism, 87 ; sex, 15 ; stand- 
ard of living, 36-37 ; vitality, 53- 
56; voters, 124, 126, 129-130. See 
Scandinavians. 

Swiss, ossimilalion, 146 ; illiteracy, 
129 : intermarriage, 141 ; natural- 
ization, 123 ; pauperism, 87 ; voters, 
126, 129. 

Syrians, employ?nent, 67. 

SAniagogues of Jews, 147. 

Table work, 108. 

Tailors. 66-67. 

Talmud, 147. 

Taxes, on aliens, 13-14; in Italy, 5-6. 

Teachers, 77. 

Teaming. 67. 

Teamsters, 74. 

Tenements, 26-27 ; nationalities, see 
various nationalities ; and crime, 
109; rents, 27 ; sanitation, 32. 

Trade and transportation. 76, 79. 

Tramps, 90, 91. 

Transportation, 67, 76, 79. 

Take, J. H.. 4. 

Unchasiity, 109, in. 

Unemployment, cause of poverty, 91- 
92. See Employment, also various 
nationalities. 

Unskilled labor. See Labor. 

Vagrancy, lor. 

Vitality, 53-56 ; of nationalities, see 
various nationalities. 

Voters, 123 ; among nationalities, see 
various nationalities. 

Wages, of carpenters, 74 ; in Ital)', 6. 

Waitresses, 35. 

Wales, emigration from, 10. 



477] Index j^j 

Warner, Amos G., quoted, 91. | West Roxbury, 75. 

Wayfarer's Lodge, 90. white, Arnold quoted 9. 

w^iJf \ T^"' ''• . Women, among Irish immigrants o. • 

^t'^mi^gSSZ/J' """■ "N ^--^ ^-1-" immigrLtf'?!; 
Axrlof ■L> J^ ^ ', . crimes, 106-109, 111-114 116 • em- 
West End, 25-26 ; density of popula- ploym^nt, 58, 68, 71 78 8 "s^ qT- 
Air Tt' ^a- ' t^"^™^"ts, 26, 32. kcess, 117 ; married SQ ' 
West Indians, intermarriage, 143-144. | marneu, 59. 



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CONTENTS FOR AUGUST, 1902. 

I. The Variation of Productive Forces Charles J. Bullock 

II. The Isthmian Canal Emory R. Johnson 

III. Recent Tendencies in Socioi^ogy Edward A. Ross 

IV, The United States Industrial Commission . . . E. Dana Durand 
Notes and Memoranda : 

Recent Events in the New England Cotton Trade . A. T. Lyman 
The American Workmen's Compensation Act . . Geo. E. Barnett 
Recent Publications upon Economics. 



CONTENTS FOR NOVEMBER, 1902. 

I. The Sugar Industry and Legislation in Europe 

Charles S. Griffin 
II. The Sugar Question in the United States . . . Frank R. Rutter 

III. Recent Tendencies in Sociology. II Edward A. Ross 

IV. The Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises of the 
States in Relation to the Growth of Corporations 

G. S. Callender 
V. The "Roundabout Process" in the Interest Theory 

Frank A. Fetter 
Notes and IMemoranda : 

The Ep.itish Trade-union Congress of 1902 . . . E. Dana Durand 
The Place of the Theory of Value in Economics. . T. N. Carver 
Recent Fudlications upon Economics. 



MARZO, 1903. 



GIORNALE 
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